Traumatic brain injury and the evidence for its management.

A 29-year-old man presented to a major trauma centre with traumatic brain injury. Following cranial decompression, the patient was admitted to the intensive care unit for medical management and monitoring. This case report reviews the evidence for the management of traumatic brain injury.

A pancreaticoduodenal artery aneurysm.

A 70-year-old man was investigated with CT imaging for haematuria. An incidental finding was made of a large inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery aneurysm. Following a period of monitoring, the patient underwent open repair of the aneurysm.

Objective measurement of lower extremity function and quality of life after surgical revascularization for critical lower extremity ischemia.

Background: Outcomes of revascularization for critical limb ischemia (CLI) have historically been patency, limb salvage, and survival. Functional status and quality of life have not been well described. This study used functional and quality of life assessments to measure patient-centered outcomes after revascularization for CLI.

MK-801 inhibits L-DOPA-induced abnormal involuntary movements only at doses that worsen parkinsonism.

Amantadine and dextromethorphan suppress levodopa (L-DOPA)-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease patients and abnormal involuntary movements (AIMs) in the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) rat model. These medications have been hypothesized to exert their therapeutic effects by a noncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist mechanism, but they also have known serotonin (5-HT) indirect agonist effects that could suppress AIMs. This raised the possibility that NMDA antagonists lacking 5-HTergic effects would not have the anti-dyskinetic action predicted by previous investigators.

Modafinil reinstates a cocaine conditioned place preference following extinction in rats.

The current study examined whether modafinil would reinstate an extinguished cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP). Following extinction of a cocaine CPP, rats were administered modafinil (128 mg/kg), cocaine (5 mg/kg) or vehicle and given a 60-min reinstatement test. While the effect of cocaine was transient, modafinil robustly reinstated a cocaine CPP following extinction, suggesting that modafinil may induce relapse or increase the vulnerability of addicts to the reinforcing effects of environmental triggers.