[The electrophysiological characteristics of the compensatory and restorative processes in the central nervous system of neurosurgical patients in relation to the lateralization of the injury].

The authors studied the functional condition of the brain during the restorative period after operative damage to one of the hemispheres. In the early stages of the restorative period in neurosurgical patients with a slow rhythm afferent stimuli (rhythmic light stimulation) induced the appearance of a marked alpha-rhythm, which is evidence of restoration of the functional condition of the cortical and subcortical structures taking part in the generation of this rhythm. Such dynamic changes in the condition of the structures may be considered as a manifestation of their activation and evaluated as a favourable prognostic sign.

[High-frequency artificial ventilation of the lungs in the postoperative period of neurosurgical patients].

The authors examined 80 patients who underwent operation on the brain and upper parts of the spinal cord. The control group of patients who had been operated on in the same period of time did not differ essentially from the group studied in number, sex, age, character and severity of the operative interventions, and the principles of postoperative intensive therapy. All the patients had no concomitant pathological conditions of the organs of respiration and circulation and required prolonged postoperative artificial ventilation of the lungs (AVL).

[Compensatory capabilities of the symmetrical regions of the dominant and subdominant hemispheres of the human brain].

A comparison was made between the EEG characteristics and spectral power of EEG frequencies in symmetrical parts of both cerebral hemispheres in order to elucidate the involvement of these areas in compensatory processes in patients with tumours localized in one of the cerebral hemispheres, before and after the removal of the tumour. Before the operation, the presence of a focus of pathological activity causing inactivation of adjacent cortical cells, is attended with activation of cells in the symmetrical areas of the intact hemisphere. Elimination of the pathological focus results in the fluctuation of interhemispheric asymmetry; for certain time periods inactivation in the sick hemisphere is replaced by activation, while in the intact hemisphere activation changes over to inactivation.