Early decompressive craniectomy and duraplasty for refractory intracranial hypertension in children: results of a pilot study.

Introduction: Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in childhood is associated with a high mortality and morbidity. Decompressive craniectomy has regained therapeutic interest during past years; however, treatment guidelines consider it a last resort treatment strategy for use only after failure of conservative therapy.

Patients: We report on the clinical course of six children treated with decompressive craniectomy after TBI at a pediatric intensive care unit.

Endoscopic surgical anatomy of the paediatric third ventricle studied using virtual neuroendoscopy based on 3-D ultrasonography.

Introduction: Endoscopic treatment for occlusive hydrocephalus requires knowledge of individual ventricular and vascular anatomies of the ventricular system.

Methods: We studied the feasibility of virtual neuroendoscopy (VNE) based on 3-D ultrasonography (3-D US) for the identification of parenchymal and vascular anatomical landmarks of the third ventricle and its impact on the surgical planning of endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) in paediatric patients. 3-D US was performed through the anterior fontanel in four infants with hydrocephalus.