Risk Reduction Strategy to Decrease Incidence of Retained Surgical Items.

Background: Retained surgical items (RSIs) are rare but serious events associated with significant morbidity and costs. We assessed the effectiveness of radiofrequency (RF) detection technology and Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) in reducing the incidence of RSIs.

Study Design: All RSIs reported to the New York Patient Occurrence Reporting and Tracking System at five large urban teaching hospitals from 2007 to 2017 were analyzed.

Quantifying the impact of optical surface guidance in the treatment of cancers of the head and neck.

Surface guided radiation therapy (SGRT) is increasingly being adopted for use in radiation treatment delivery for Head and Neck (H&N) cancer patients. This study investigated the improvement of patient setup accuracy and reduction of setup time for SGRT compared to a conventional setup. A total of 60 H&N cancer patients were retrospectively included.

Evaluating different routes of extracellular vesicle administration for cranial therapies.

Aim: Human stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EV) provide many advantages over cell-based therapies for the treatment of functionally compromised tissue beds and organ sites. Here we aimed to highlight multiple administration routes for the potential treatment of various forms of brain injury.

Methods: Human neural stem cell-derived EV were isolated from conditioned media and administered via three distinct routes: intrahippocampal transplantation, retro-orbital vein injection, and intranasal.

Radiation oncology resident education in palliative care.

Palliative and supportive care education for radiation oncologists in training is essential to deliver comprehensive care to patients. Surveys on palliative care education among radiation oncology program directors and residents demonstrate a disparity in formal teaching and didactics. Integration of formal didactics, communications skills programs, and teaching modules are being piloted at academic centers.

Histology, Tumor Volume, and Radiation Dose Predict Outcomes in NSCLC Patients After Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy.

Introduction: It remains unclear if histology should be independently considered when choosing stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy dose prescriptions for NSCLC.

Methods: The study population included 508 patients with 561 lesions between 2000 and 2016, of which 442 patients with 482 lesions had complete dosimetric information. Eligible patients had histologically or clinically diagnosed early-stage NSCLC and were treated with 3 to 5 fractions.

Successful non-operative management of blunt abdominal trauma in highly selective cases: A safe and effective choice.

Background: The non-operative management (NOM) of abdominal injuries has gained wide acceptance over the last few decades. The present study evaluated the efficacy of NOM in blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) at a regional Hellenic hospital.

Methods: We analyzed the results of a pre-decided treatment protocol, which was applied to all patients hospitalized for BAT, from 2008 to 2015.

Fear extinction deficits following acute stress associate with increased spine density and dendritic retraction in basolateral amygdala neurons.

Stress-sensitive psychopathologies such as post-traumatic stress disorder are characterized by deficits in fear extinction and dysfunction of corticolimbic circuits mediating extinction. Chronic stress facilitates fear conditioning, impairs extinction, and produces dendritic proliferation in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), a critical site of plasticity for extinction. Acute stress impairs extinction, alters plasticity in the medial prefrontal cortex-to-BLA circuit, and causes dendritic retraction in the medial prefrontal cortex.

Rich collaterals in clinically unsuspected basilar artery occlusion-as good as it gets.

Basilar artery occlusion (BAO) is generally considered an emergency and is associated with high mortality and poor functional outcome. Although cases with more benign course without thrombolysis treatment have occasionally been reported, to our knowledge there is only one previous report in which angiography, almost accidentally revealed a clinically unsuspected BAO. A 45-year-old man with treated hypertension and lipidemia had three distinct isolated episodes of dizziness, 2-3 months before he was referred by an internist for an ultrasound neurovascular evaluation.

Neuroimaging in human prion disease: Searching in the mist.

Human prion disease is a rare, uniformly fatal neurodegenerative disorder.Its precise pathogenesis is obscure. The clinical profile of the disease differs among its various forms.

Parry-Romberg Syndrome Associated with Localized Scleroderma.

Parry-Romberg syndrome is a rare neurocutaneous disorder of unknown origin. It is characterized by progressive facial hemiatrophy and frequently overlaps with a condition known as linear scleroderma 'en coup de sabre'. Neurological involvement is frequently described in these patients, including migraine, facial pain and epilepsy, which represent the commonest neurological conditions, sometimes associated with brain abnormalities ipsilaterally to the skin lesions.

Perineal rectosigmoidectomy for gangrenous rectal prolapse.

Incarceration rarely complicates the chronically progressive form of the full thickness rectal prolapse. Even more rarely, it becomes strangulated, necessitating emergency surgery. We describe an extremely rare case of incarcerated acute rectal prolapse, without a relevant previous history or symptoms of predisposing pathology.

Bile leaks after cholecystectomy: the significance of patient selection.

Objective: A retrospective analysis of laparoscopic and open cholecystectomies, with introduction of selection criteria and estimation of postoperative bile leaks.

Method: All patients who underwent cholecystectomy in a tertiary surgical unit from January 2007 to June 2008 formed 2 categories, laparoscopic and open. The choice of operation was based on patient's present status and past medical history, whereas the decision to convert came from intraoperative findings.

Acute paraplegia in painless aortic dissection. Rich imaging with poor outcome.

Study Design: Case report.

Objective: To describe the clinical and imaging findings of a patient with painless aortic dissection.

Setting: University Neurology Department, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Primary progressive aphasia as the initial manifestation of corticobasal degeneration. A "three in one " syndrome?

In 1994, the term "Pick complex" was proposed to indicate significant clinical and pathological overlapping between primary progressive aphasia, frontal lobe dementia and corticobasal degeneration. We report the case of a 60-year-old man, who initially presented progressive non-fluent aphasia with orofacial apraxia, and subsequently, over a period of 3 years, developed mutism, pathological laughter, extrapyramidal rigidity, dystonia, alien hand syndrome and bulbar signs. An extensive haematological, immunological and biochemical work up was normal.

Can 'football-team color-code' compensate for anomia? The case study of FN, a patient with color anomia.

A case study is reported on large ischemic infracts involving cortical and subcortical areas of the parietal lobes bilaterally, especially left temporo-parietal and right parietal. On examination, the diagnosis of vascular dementia with color anomia, optic aphasia for colors, was established. The patient (FN) showed great difficulty in understanding a scene as a whole and in describing complex scenes.

Cytomegalovirus-associated transverse myelitis in a non-immunocompromised patient.

Design: Single case report.

Objective: To report a rare case of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-associated transverse myelitis (TM) in the immunocompetent host.

Settings: Collaboration between a Neurology and Radiology University Department in Greece and a Molecular Virology Department in Cyprus.