[Visual evoked potentials in children with gliomas of the optic nerve and chiasm].

Marked changes of visual evoked potentials (VEP) were revealed in patients with gliomas of the optic nerves and chiasm in preserved visual acuity of one eye. The more caudal the spread of the tumor, the more manifest were the prolongation of the peak latencies of the main VEP components, the diminution of their amplitude, and the change of the relation of the signal to the noise. It is shown that VEP examination together with analysis of the ophthalmological picture may facilitate the differential diagnosis of glioma of the optic nerves and chiasm from inflammatory processes and suprasellar tumors.

[Complex electrophysiologic diagnosis of traumatic lesions of the brachial plexus at the preganglionic level].

In 20 patients with preganglionic injuries to the brachial plexus the authors recorded short-latent somatosensory evoked potentials (EP) and sensory EP in response to stimulation of the musculocutaneous, radial, median, and ulnar nerves on both sides. The preganglionic level of brachial plexus injury was characterized by the absence of short-latent somatosensory EP, which reflected disturbance of the connection of the neuromuscular apparatus with the spinal cord, and the presence of sensory EP which bore evidence of maintained connection of the sensory fibers with the spinal ganglia. The electrophysiological data corresponded completely to the operative findings in 11 and partly in 7 cases.

[Results of interfascicular autotransplantation in the treatment of traumatic injuries of the median and ulnar nerves].

The results of operation for interfascicular autotransplantation conducted on 50 patients with traumatic injuries to the median and ulnar nerves are analysed. The study confirmed the high efficacy of repairing defects in nerves with autografts and interfascicular apposition of the separate elements of the nerve trunks. The best results were produced with the use of short autografts.

[Features of thalamocortical relations in the phantom pain syndrome (electrophysiologic studies during stereotaxic surgery)].

Corticographic effects are analysed in 14 patients with severe phantom-pain syndrome from data obtained in electric stimulation of specific sensory and nonspecific nuclear structures of the thalamus. The findings of EEG, ECoG and VP analysis reflect reorganization of the thalamo-cortical relationships in the phantom-pain syndrome in the direction of disorganization of the regulating mechanisms. Evidence of this are an increased excitability level in the thalamic nuclei and the central cortex, disorder of the regional differences of the weakly modulated alpha-rhythm, and marked changes in the amplitude and configuration of VP of the parietal and central cortical areas.

[Effects of electric stimulation and destruction of the centrum medianum of the optic thalamus in patients with akinetic forms of parkinsonism].

Results of electrostimulation and destruction of the median centre of the thalamus in 15 patients with parkinsonism and in 7 patients with uncontrollable pain are presented. Reactions of activation and inhibition in the psychoemotional, somatic and vegetosensory spheres in response to the stimulation are described. Data on bioelectrical activity changes in the cortex of the large hemispheres are presented.

[Clinical physiological effects of electrostimulation and destruction of the ventrolateral portions of the cerebellar dentate nuclei in different forms of motor pathology].

The effect of electrostimulation and destruction of the ventrolateral parts of the cerebellar dentate nuclei is described on the basis of 27 dentotomies performed on patients with different forms of motor pathology. The dento-cortical connections were studied by advancing electrodes to the cerebral and cerebellar cortex through trephination openings made in the postero-frontal-parasagittal area for ventriculography and in the occipital area for the insertion of a stereotaxic cannula. It was found that the principal test for operative identification of the ventro-oral parts of the dentate nucleus in electrostimulation are motor reactions and changes in the muscular tonus in the homolateral limbs and reactions of the cortex of the central and precentral areas of the cerebral hemispheres revealed by electrocorticography.