Reducing ventriculostomy-related infections to near zero: the eliminating ventriculostomy infection study.

Implementation of a standard protocol and use of antibiotic-coated ventricular catheters helped reduce EVD-related infections from 9.2% to almost zero at the University of Florida. This project demonstrated the success of creating a task force to identify areas of improvement, implement solutions, and monitor the outcomes.

Clinical course of nontraumatic, nonaneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: a single-institution experience.

Object: Angiogram-negative subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) accounts for 15% of nontraumatic SAH and has been reported with low morbidity and mortality rates. We report on a large series of patients with angiogram-negative SAH who experienced an atypical nonbenign clinical course.

Methods: Between December 2001 and November 2006, 95 patients with spontaneous nonaneurysmal SAH and negative initial angiographic evaluation were treated at the University of Florida.

Factors associated with aspirin resistance in patients premedicated with aspirin and clopidogrel for endovascular neurosurgery.

Objective: Antiplatelet therapy is critical to endovascular neurosurgical procedures. Some patients are aspirin-resistant nonresponders. We reviewed our endovascular neurosurgery patients who were premedicated with aspirin and clopidogrel and identified nonresponders to aspirin.

Comparison of N-butyl cyanoacrylate and onyx for the embolization of intracranial arteriovenous malformations: analysis of fluoroscopy and procedure times.

Objective: Intracranial arteriovenous malformations (AVM) may be managed through staged preoperative embolization and resection. Two commonly used liquid embolics are N-butyl cyanoacrylate (nBCA; Cordis Microvascular, Inc., New Brunswick, NJ) and Onyx (ev3, Inc.

Bottleneck factor and height-width ratio: association with ruptured aneurysms in patients with multiple cerebral aneurysms.

Objective: Determining factors predictive of the natural risk of rupture of cerebral aneurysms is difficult because of the need to control for confounding variables. We studied factors associated with rupture in a study model of patients with multiple cerebral aneurysms, one aneurysm that had ruptured and one or more that had not, in which each patient served as their own internal control.

Methods: We collected aneurysm location, one-dimensional measurements, and two-dimensional indices from the computed tomographic angiograms of patients in the proposed study model and compared ruptured versus unruptured aneurysms.