Outcome following lumbar disc surgery: the role of fibrosis.

Background: Failed-back surgery syndrome remains a challenge for spinal surgeons. It can be related to several causes, including poor surgical indication, misdiagnosis, surgical technique failure, spondilodiscitis and fibrosis. Fibrosis has been associated with a poorer outcome in lumbar disc surgery, although its role in the generation of symptoms is not yet clear.

Treatment of large and giant residual and recurrent vestibular schwannomas.

This report is a retrospective analysis of the surgical outcome of 15 patients (8 females, 7 males; mean age, 37.8 years) with residual or recurrent vestibular schwannomas operated on between 1987 and 2005. These 15 patients were part of a larger series of 252 consecutive vestibular schwannoma excisions.

Patterns of neuroaxis dissemination of gliomas: suggestion of a classification based on magnetic resonance imaging findings.

Background: Local invasion is the hallmark of malignant glioma dissemination. Leptomeningeal dissemination, a serious complication of malignant gliomas, has been increasingly observed. To correlate the physiopathologic mechanisms and the magnetic resonance imaging patterns of neuroaxis dissemination, a classification of malignant glioma dissemination is proposed (Instituto de Neurologia de Curitiba Classification).

Distal posterior inferior cerebellar artery aneurysm: case report.

The majority of posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) aneurysms are usually found on the bifurcation of the vertebral artery (VA) - PICA junction. Aneurysms arising from more peripheral PICA segments named distal PICA aneurysm are uncommon. The major clinical manifestation is that of an intracranial bleeding and the site of hemorrhage is related to the PICA segment originating the aneurysm.