[Influence of armed conflict on mortality due to traumatic brain injury in children and adolescents].

Background: In the presence an armed conflagration, the mortality behavior of a country is expected to be affected. The aim of this investigation was to assess, in a country with internal warfare, the trend of mortality associated with traumatic brain injury in children and adolescents, which even under social peace conditions, is one of the most common causes of death and disability in this population groups.

Methods: A retrospective, population-based study was conducted, where the trend of mortality due to traumatic brain injury during the 1999 to 2008 period was assessed.

[Application of vancomycin powder into the wound during spine surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis].

Objective: To determine the effects of applying vancomycin powder within the surgical wound on the risk of surgical infections, pseudo-arthrosis and adverse events, in patients undergoing spinal surgery.

Material And Methods: A meta-analysis was carried out, including controlled studies that evaluated the risk of postoperative infections and/or pseudo-arthrosis in patients undergoing spinal surgery in which vancomycin powder was applied within the surgical wound.

Results: were presented as pooled relative risks, with its 95% confidence intervals.

[Postoperative bed header position after burr-hole drainage of chronic subdural haematoma: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials].

Introduction: Several studies have suggested the possible influence of postoperative bed header position on the risk of symptomatic recurrences and medical complications in patients who have been intervened due chronic subdural haematomas. Nevertheless, this hypothesis has not been assessed by a meta-analysis.

Methods: All randomised controlled trials analysing symptomatic recurrence rates in patients who underwent burr-hole drainage of chronic subdural haematomas, describing postoperative bed header positioning, were included.

External lumbar cerebrospinal fluid drainage in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials.

Introduction: External lumbar drainage is a promising measure for the prevention of delayed aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage-related ischemic complications.

Methods: Controlled studies evaluating the effects of external lumbar drainage in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage were included. Primary outcomes were: new cerebral infarctions and severe disability.

[Spinal cord compression due to intraspinal syphilitic gumma in one patient. Clinical case].

The involvement of the central nervous system by Treponema pallidum has increased in the past 20 years, particularly as a result of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic. However, tertiary forms, and especially syphilitic gumma, are increasingly rare as a result of the widespread use of penicillin. Spinal cord compromise due to syphilitic gumma is an exceptional event; only two cases were found in the literature review.