Publications by authors named "Mun-Chun Yeap"

Background: Blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI) accounts for 1-3 % of patients with blunt trauma, which should be promptly diagnosed and managed due to risk of cerebral infarction and death. Antithrombotic therapy had been proven to reduce risk of stroke and mortality. However, due to concern of hematoma progression, treatment suggestion is still inconclusive for patients with concurrent traumatic intracranial hemorrhage.

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  • - This study explores using the C1 nerve root as a key surgical guide for identifying the shunting point of craniocervical junction spinal dural arteriovenous fistulas (CCJ-SDAVF) during surgery, based on data from 7 patients treated from January 2017 to June 2023.
  • - Of the 7 patients, most (71.4%) were male, and all showed complete obliteration of the CCJ-SDAVFs post-surgery, with follow-up assessments revealing no recurrences within two years.
  • - The findings suggest that interrupting CCJ-SDAVFs surgically yields high success rates and good functional recovery for most patients, emphasizing the importance of identifying the C1 nerve
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Background: Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is a prevalent neurosurgical condition that is known to recur and that leads to unfavorable clinical outcomes. Middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAE) has emerged as an alternative treatment to prevent recurrence. This study investigated the efficacy of combined 2 therapies in a hybrid operative suite for high-risk patients.

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  • This study investigated how different doses of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) influence treatment outcomes in patients undergoing mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for stroke, particularly looking at standard (within 6 hours) and extended (after 6 hours) treatment windows.
  • It was found that in the standard window, patients receiving full-dose tPA had significantly better functional outcomes after 90 days compared to those receiving a reduced dose (49% vs 21%).
  • Conversely, in the extended window, the dosage of tPA (full vs reduced) did not impact functional outcomes, suggesting that the timing of the treatment is more critical than the tPA dosage in these cases.
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Objective: Incomplete occlusion of cerebral dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF) may lead to fistula recurrence and rebleeding, which may necessitate several embolizations and lead to worse clinical outcomes. Herein, we describe a grouting technique for endovascular embolization and its outcomes in a series of patients with complex intracranial DAVF.

Methods: A total of 20 patients with aggressive type or symptomatic intracranial non-cavernous DAVF underwent endovascular transvenous embolization combining detachable coils and Onyx.

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  • * Researchers divided the sTBI patients into three groups based on disability severity using the Modified Rankin Score, analyzing the relationship between biomarker levels and patient outcomes over the week following the injury.
  • * Findings showed that elevated levels of specific cytokines, particularly IL-6, were associated with different outcomes among the patient groups, indicating their potential use in predicting recovery or decline in sTBI cases.
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Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD). However, local field potentials (LFPs) recorded through lead externalization during high-frequency stimulation (HFS) are contaminated by stimulus artifacts, which require to be removed before further analysis.

New Method: In this study, a novel stimulus artifact removal algorithm based on manifold denoising, termed Shrinkage and Manifold-based Artifact Removal using Template Adaptation (SMARTA), was proposed to remove artifacts by deriving a template for each stimulus artifact and subtracting it from the signal.

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  • A study evaluated a new portable neuroendoscopic system for minimally invasive surgery to remove spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhages, showing promising outcomes in a small group of ten patients.
  • The system allowed for improved surgical precision and efficiency, resulting in an 86% reduction in hematoma volume within 6 hours post-surgery and significant improvement in patient recovery scores.
  • No deaths or complications like rebleeding occurred in the follow-up period, indicating the device's potential, but further research is necessary to understand its long-term benefits.
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  • * Out of 112 patients analyzed, the research found that 13.4% experienced recurrence, predominantly among those treated without stents, and aneurysm rupture was a significant risk factor for recurrence.
  • * The findings revealed that aneurysms treated with stent-assisted coiling had better long-term outcomes, as no re-recurrence was noted in patients undergoing this method after an initial recurrence.
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Objective: Continuous cardiac monitoring on patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is difficult out of intensive care unit (ICU) in the subacute stage. Therefore, we verified the feasibility of a novel electrocardiography (ECG) patch device to record long-term heart rhythm.

Methods: The ECG patches were applied on aSAH patients during their stay in general ward.

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Purpose: Creating enough decompression, favorable outcome, less complication, and maintain adequate lordosis and stability in the patients with cervical myelopathy due to multilevel massive ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) still poses a challenge for surgeons. The aim of our study is to retrospectively evaluate our patients and try to seek a better surgical strategy.

Methods: Between 2015 and 2019, 55 consecutive patients with multilevel massive OPLL underwent surgical treatment.

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  • - The study investigates whether the local neural activity in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) can predict the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treating Parkinson's disease, specifically looking at different frequency bands of brain activity.
  • - Researchers recorded brain activity from 26 patients during DBS surgery, focusing on frequency bands: theta, alpha, low, high, and low-gamma, to assess their correlation with improvements in symptoms like tremors and rigidity.
  • - Results showed a strong positive correlation between high-frequency brain activity and symptom improvement, while the distance from the optimal stimulation contact also had a negative impact, together explaining about 37.4% of the improvement variance.
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Objective: Laparoscopic ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery has been reported to have several advantages in selected patients. However, the prognostic factors have been understudied specifically for this surgery. We sought to investigate the factors influencing the complications after the laparoscopic ventriculoperitoneal shunt placement.

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Background: Traumatic aneurysms at the superior cerebellar arteries after head injury are extremely rare and may be overlooked. Rupture of these aneurysms can cause fatal intracranial hemorrhages; thus, early identification of the entity helps prevent detrimental outcomes.

Observations: A patient suffered from sudden severe headache and decreased consciousness level several weeks after a blunt head injury.

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  • The study investigates delayed progressive mass effect (DPME) following treatment of ruptured middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysms, noting its association with poor clinical outcomes and the possible need for additional surgical intervention.
  • Out of 80 patients studied, 27 (33.7%) experienced DPME, which significantly correlated with a higher likelihood of requiring salvage surgery and worse 90-day functional outcomes.
  • Independent risk factors for DPME included the presence of hematomas, CTA spot signs, and low-density areas in the perisylvian region, highlighting the importance of monitoring these factors post-operation.
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Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) and spinal fracture are major complications in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who sustain spinal trauma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence, predictors, and sequelae of spinal trauma in patients with AS.

Methods: This retrospective study included patients with AS who were admitted for spinal trauma between January 1, 2006, and June 30, 2016.

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  • Traumatic intraventricular hemorrhage (tIVH) significantly increases in-hospital mortality (11.4% vs. 9.2%) and the chances of poor functional outcomes (37.9% vs. 10.6%) in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients.
  • A study of 5048 TBI patients over five years identified 149 with tIVH and utilized inverse probability of treatment weighting to minimize confounding variables.
  • Key factors affecting outcomes included age (especially those 65 and older), Glasgow Coma Scale scores, and a new scoring system called the Traumatic Graeb Score, where a score of 4 or higher indicates worse functional outcomes.
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Objectives: For the endovascular intervention of acute ischemic stroke, a transcervical route is an alternative approach in patients with challenging anatomical variations. Percutaneous puncture is a common way, but it can cause many fatal complications. Direct carotid artery exposure is an alternative for reducing complications.

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Subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for the motor impairments of patients with advanced Parkinson's disease. However, mood or behavioral changes, such as mania, hypomania, and impulsive disorders, can occur postoperatively. It has been suggested that these symptoms are associated with the stimulation of the limbic subregion of the STN.

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Background: Balloon microcatheters are widely used for endovascular treatment. However, no reports on direct coil embolization from dual-lumen balloon microcatheters are available in the literature. This report is the first description of direct coil embolization using this type of balloon microcatheter for looming bleeding emergencies.

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Background: Dual antiplatelet therapy is widely used for stent-assisted coil embolization (SACE) for unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) to prevent thromboembolic events (TEs). Compared to clopidogrel associated with aspirin, knowledge of the safety and efficacy of ticagrelor is lacking in large studies to date.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted from January 2016 to December 2018 with at least one year of follow-up in a single institution and systemic review.

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  • - The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of swab cultures taken from cryopreserved skull flaps during cranioplasties in predicting surgical site infections (SSIs).
  • - An analysis of 422 patients revealed an overall infection rate of 7.58%, with swab cultures showing high specificity but low sensitivity, resulting in many false-positive and false-negative results.
  • - The findings concluded that swab cultures should not be routinely used during delayed cranioplasties due to their poor accuracy in predicting SSIs and the types of pathogens involved.
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Epstein-Barr virus-associated smooth muscle tumor (EBV-SMT) is a rare mesenchymal tumor that almost exclusively occurs in immunocompromised hosts. Here, we report a 75-year-old Taiwanese woman without definite immune-deficient history presenting with progressive occipital neuralgia, low cranial nerve deficits (CN9-12) and cervical (C1-C5) radiculopathy. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a 4.

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Background: Treatment for circumferential vertebral artery dissecting aneurysms (VADAs) remains challenging. Stent-assisted coil embolization is the most common treatment technique. However, this approach presents high rates of incomplete occlusion and recurrence, often requiring the addition of second or third stents for reconstruction.

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Background: Cerebral vasospasm still results in high morbidity and mortality rates in patients after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). The aim of this study was to establish a protocol for the management of vasospasm and demonstrate our experience of angioplasty using the Scepter XC balloon catheter.

Methods: In this retrospective study, a computed tomography angiography and perfusion image was arranged if early symptoms occurred or on the 7th day following aneurysmal SAH.

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