Surgical treatment of Chiari malformation with and without syringomyelia: experience with 177 adult patients.

Object: This study aims to show the relationship between clinical outcome in patients who underwent surgical decompression for Chiari malformation (CM) and postoperative imaging studies, with particular emphasis on the subarachnoid cisterns of the posterior fossa.

Methods: One hundred seventy-seven patients with CM, including 97 with syringomyelia, underwent posterior fossa decompressive surgery. Both the dura and arachnoid were opened in 150 of these patients, and 135 underwent reduction of the cerebellar tonsils.

A nursing partnership: the forces of magnetism guiding evidence-based practice in the Republic of Armenia.

A team of nurses at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, has been participating in a global collaboration with nurses at Erebouni Medical Center in Yerevan, Armenia. During this collaboration, they have built on work initiated by representatives of the American International Health Alliance and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to develop application of evidence-based practice in the Armenian nurse's work environment. Their collective efforts have resulted in initiating nursing assessments and plans of care, position descriptions and performance appraisals, competency assessment tools, and performance improvement tools.

Three-dimensional helical computerized tomography angiography in the diagnosis, characterization, and management of middle cerebral artery aneurysms: comparison with conventional angiography and intraoperative findings.

Object: Middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysms can be difficult to detect and characterize. The authors describe the utility and impact of helical computerized tomography (CT) angiography for the evaluation of aneurysms in this location, and compare this modality with digital subtraction (DS) angiography and intraoperative findings.

Methods: Two hundred fifty-one patients with suspected cerebral aneurysms underwent CT angiography.

Detection and characterization of very small cerebral aneurysms by using 2D and 3D helical CT angiography.

Background And Purpose: Many cases of subarachnoid hemorrhage are due to rupture of small cerebral aneurysms. Our purpose was to evaluate the usefulness of helical CT angiography (CTA) in the detection and characterization of very small (<5 mm) intracranial aneurysms.

Methods: One hundred eighty consecutive patients underwent CTA for suspected intracranial aneurysms.

Therapeutic embolization of arteriovenous malformations: the case for and against.

The field of endovascular therapy has demonstrated stunning technical achievements in AVM embolization. Embolization has the potential to enhance the safety and efficacy of AVM treatment when applied in carefully considered cases. The utility of embolization, at the present time, is limited by the fact that the procedure may be associated with disabling or fatal complications, and because complete or near-complete AVM nidus occlusion can be achieved only in a minority of cases.