Effect of the local anesthetic agent bupivacaine prior to application of the skull-pin holder for craniotomies.

Object: The authors conducted a double-blind prospective randomized study to determine whether infiltration of Mayfield skull-pin sites with 0.5% bupivacaine, compared with placebo, would prevent hemodynamic stimulation, thus allowing for a reduction in the quantity of anesthetic agents required.

Methods: Thirty patients were randomized into two groups.

Bioavailability study of oral and intravenous OGT 719, a novel nucleoside analogue with preferential activity in the liver.

Purpose: Although oral fluoropyrimidine prodrugs are increasingly being administered in preference to intravenous nucleoside analogues in cancer chemotherapy, their activation in malignant liver tissue may be insufficient. OGT 719 (1-galactopyranosyl-5-fluorouracil) is a novel nucleoside analogue, preferentially localized in hepatocytes and hepatoma cells via the asialoglycoprotein receptor. The aim of this study was to assess the systemic bioavailability of this rationally designed drug in 16 patients with advanced solid cancers.

Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic study of oral Curcuma extract in patients with colorectal cancer.

Curcuma spp. extracts, particularly the dietary polyphenol curcumin, prevent colon cancer in rodents. In view of the sparse information on the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of curcumin in humans, a dose-escalation pilot study of a novel standardized Curcuma extract in proprietary capsule form was performed at doses between 440 and 2200 mg/day, containing 36-180 mg of curcumin.

[Postoperative hematoma distant from the surgical site. A case report and review of the literature].

Significant post-operative hemorrhage is a rare complication of intracranial surgery. Hemorrhage remote from the site of neurosurgical intervention is rare, with only 37 cases reported in the literature. We present the case of a 62 year old woman who presented a right occipital hematoma following excision of a large left sphenoidal meningioma.