A case of not just Pott's disease.

Spinal tuberculosis (TB) is a rare cause of vertebral osteomyelitis in the developed world. Co-infections with other microorganisms are seldom reported in the literature. Here we report a case of and causing acute on chronic vertebral osteomyelitis with an epidural abscess.

Routine perioperative ketorolac administration is not associated with hemorrhage in pediatric neurosurgery patients.

OBJECT NSAIDs are effective perioperative analgesics. Many surgeons are reluctant to use NSAIDs perioperatively because of a theoretical increase in the risk for bleeding events. The authors assessed the effect of routine perioperative ketorolac use on intracranial hemorrhage in children undergoing a wide range of neurosurgical procedures.

Minimally invasive technique for insertion of ventriculopleural shunt catheters.

Object: Cerebrospinal fluid diversion to the pleural space has employed various methods to insert the distal catheter into the pleural space. The authors report on a minimally invasive method of pleural catheter insertion that they have developed and have used safely in a small series of patients.

Methods: Pleural shunt catheters were inserted using a split trochar into the pleural space (technique described in further detail in the article).

76-year-old man with a cerebellar lesion.

We report a case of balloon cell melanoma metastatic to the cerebellum; the clear cell morphology prompted initial differential diagnostic considerations of metastatic renal cell carcinoma and hemangioblastoma in this site. To our knowledge this is only the second case of metastatic balloon cell melanoma to the CNS.

Advances in neurosurgery: Five new things.

Surgical options for disease of the nervous system continue to expand in breadth and scope. These advances have been related in large part to progress in technology, translational application of molecular biology, and increasing understanding of the physiologic processes associated with neurologic disease. The current review will outline recent neurosurgical advances in the management of brain tumors, movement disorders, spinal degenerative disease, and neurologic injury.

Experience is required for the maintenance and refinement of FM sweep selectivity in the developing auditory cortex.

Frequency modulated (FM) sweeps are common components of vocalizations, including human speech. How developmental experience shapes neuronal selectivity for these important signals is not well understood. Here, we show that altered developmental experience with FM sweeps used in echolocation by the pallid bat leads to either a loss of sideband inhibition or millisecond delays in the timing of inhibitory inputs, both of which lead to a reduction in rate and direction selectivity in auditory cortex.

Neural mechanisms underlying selectivity for the rate and direction of frequency-modulated sweeps in the inferior colliculus of the pallid bat.

This study describes mechanisms that underlie neuronal selectivity for the direction and rate of frequency-modulated sweeps in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC) of the pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus). This ICC contains a high percentage of neurons (66%) that respond selectively to the downward sweep direction of the bat's echolocation pulse. Some (19%) are specialists that respond only to downward sweeps.