Friedrich Weickmann (1913-1983): some reminiscences.

Friedrich Weickmann was one of the most distinguished neurosurgeons of the former German Democratic Republic and an eminent representative of the neurosurgical school established by Fedor Krause. For 25 years he was head of the neurosurgical department in Berlin-Buch, which he developed into an excellent nonuniversity center. Weickmann was the first German to publish a comprehensive text on pediatric neurosurgery.

Neuron-like physiological properties of cells from human oligodendroglial tumors.

One of the most common symptoms of patients with oligodendrogliomas is the high frequency of epileptic seizures. We thus studied the physiological properties of cells in six human oligodendrogliomas and two oligoastrocytomas obtained from surgical material. The majority of tumor cells in living brain slices can generate action potentials as recorded with the patch-clamp technique indicating that this tissue is dominated by electrically excitable cells.

Problems in the balloon occlusion of aneurysms.

From 1987-1991 we performed 20 balloon occlusions in 15 patients with intracranial aneurysms. In 9 patients procedures were technically successful however long term complications included three deaths. In spite of the advancements in the balloon catheter technology fatalities occur restricting the use of percutaneous balloon occlusion to patients with unclippable aneurysms.

Karyotypes in 90 human gliomas.

Cytogenetic studies were performed on 90 human gliomas including 26 astrocytomas, 12 oligodendrogliomas, three oligo-astrocytomas, seven ependymomas, eight pilocytic astrocytomas, and 33 malignant gliomas (anaplastic astrocytomas and glioblastomas). The most common abnormalities were trisomy 7 in 23 cases, monosomy 22 in 15 cases, losses of the Y chromosome in 19 of 50 male cases, and losses of the X chromosome in 10 of 39 female cases. There are evident differences between the particular subgroups of gliomas.

[Conservative or surgical treatment for foreign body injuries of the brain].

Presenting our patients with cerebral foreign body injuries since 1954 we find that surgical management is not absolutely indispensable. Criteria for conservative management are presented with illustrative cases.