Olfactory schwannomas - an enigmatic clinical entity.

Olfactory Schwannomas (OS) are a rare, benign tumour entity. Throughout literature, only few cases have been reported. We describe here a case of a 75-year-old female with a contrast enhanced mass lesion in the anterior fossa, who underwent a surgical removal and its histopathological analysis was consistent with a schwannoma.

Surgical and functional outcome of olfactory groove meningiomas: Lessons from the past experience and strategy development.

Object: Olfactory groove meningiomas (OGMs) constitute a unique subset of intracranial meningiomas, since they usually remain clinically silent for a long period of time, and they may be of large size upon their diagnosis. Their surgical management remains quite challenging. The surgical and the neuropsychological outcome of patients with OGM are presented in our current study, in order to establish a basis for developing efficacious surgical strategies for the management of this clinico-pathological entity.

Isolated massive intraventricular haemorrhage without subarachnoid haemorrhage due to rupture of a posterior communicating artery aneurysm.

The classical presentation of a ruptured intracranial aneurysm is subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). We present a rare case of a ruptured posterior communicating artery (PcomA) aneurysm presented solely with massive intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) in a 53-year-old female. The aneurysm was coiled successfully and the outcome of the patient was excellent.

Intrachiasmatic abscess caused by IgG4-related hypophysitis.

Introduction: Autoimmune hypophysitis is a rare disease of the pituitary, which may affect vision by inflammation and compression of the optic chiasm. However, intrachiasmatic abscess formation has not been previously reported.

Methods: In this study, we report a case of a 29-year-old female with bitemporal hemianopia due to a cystic intrasellar tumor.

Traumatic pneumorrachis after isolated closed head injuries: An up-to-date review.

Pneumorrachis (PR) is characterized by the presence of air within the spinal canal. It can be classified descriptively into internal or intradural and external or epidural. The causes of PR can be divided as iatrogenic, nontraumatic and traumatic.

Repeat surgery for recurrent low-grade gliomas should be standard of care.

The importance of surgery and maximal extent of resection (EOR) is well established in primary low-grade glioma (LGG) management. However, the role of surgery in the management of recurrent LGG is less clear. A recent review on the management of recurrent LGG concluded there was insufficient evidence to recommend surgery.

Low-grade myofibroblastic sarcoma of the thoracic spine: report of an extreme rare case.

Primary low-grade myofibroblastic sarcoma of the bone seems to be extraordinary rare. A search of the literature revealed only 11 prior cases. The most common location is distal femur, followed by the iliac wing.

Intracranial meningioma with vertebral or intraspinal metastasis: report of 2 cases and review of the literature.

Extracranial meningioma metastases (EMM) occur in 0.1% of intracranial meningioma patients and are more commonly seen in those with atypical and anaplastic histologies. While the lungs and pleura are the most common site of EMM, intraspinal and vertebral EMM also occur and are not well described in the literature.

Traumatic brain injury and gene knockout animal models: an up-to-date review.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Identification of endogenous neuroprotective mechanisms after TBI and the development of therapeutic targets to improve TBI outcomes are areas of intense scientific research. In this review, we summarize genetically modified TBI mouse models and highlight the recent scientific findings from using such models, including mediators of inflammation, programmed cell death and metabolism, modulators of vascular tone and membrane channel proteins.

AQP4 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms in patients with traumatic brain injury.

Accumulating evidence suggests that the extent of brain injury and the clinical outcome after traumatic brain injury (TBI) are modulated, to some degree, by genetic variants. Aquaporin-4 (AQP4) is the predominant water channel in the central nervous system and plays a critical role in controlling the water content of brain cells and the development of brain edema after TBI. We sought to investigate the influence of the AQP4 gene region on patient outcome after TBI by genotyping tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) along AQP4 gene.

Patients on Anticoagulants after a Head Trauma : Is a Negative Initial CT Scan Enough? Report of a Case of Delayed Subdural Haematoma and Review of the Literature.

Mild traumatic brain injury is common in elderly patients, many of whom are on anticoagulant. The common practice is to discharge these patients from the emergency room if the computed tomography (CT) of the brain is normal. However, a very small proportion of these patients may develop a life threatening intracranial haematoma in the following days.

Treatment of refractory simple partial status epilepticus by the addition of oral lacosamide in neurosurgical patients. Report of 3 cases.

Lacosamide is a new antiepileptic drug that has been successfully used for the treatment of partial seizures. We report three neurosurgical cases of simple partial status epilepticus refractory to multiple antiepileptic medications. The addition of oral lacosamide in doses of 200-400 mg in combination with the existing treatment had successfully controlled the seizures within four days.