Safety for cervical corpectomy and diskectomy: univariate and multivariate analysis on predictors for prolonged ICU stay after anterior spinal fusion.

Aim: Cervical anterior spinal fusion (ASF) with corpectomy has risks of catastrophic acute complications such as airway obstruction requiring re-intubation. Our team has adopted a management plan for all cervical corpectomy patients to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after the operations for overnight observation. Some of these patients were kept intubated after the operations and transferred to the ICU.

Awake craniotomy for excision of arteriovenous malformations? A qualitative comparison study with stereotactic radiosurgery.

Treatment of arteriovenous malformations (AVM) located at the eloquent area has been a challenge. Awake brain mapping allows identification of a non-eloquent gyrus for intervention and can potentially facilitate resection with preservation of functions. An alternative treatment option is stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

Introducing Final-Year Medical Students to Pocket-Sized Ultrasound Imaging: Teaching Transthoracic Echocardiography on a 2-Week Anesthesia Rotation.

Problem: The availability of less expensive and smaller ultrasound machines has enabled the use of ultrasound in virtually all major medical/surgical disciplines. Some medical schools have incorporated point-of-care ultrasound training into their undergraduate curriculum, whereas many postgraduate programs have made ultrasound training a standard. The Chinese University of Hong Kong has charged its Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care to spearhead the introduction of ultrasound into the final-year medical curriculum by introducing handheld transthoracic echocardiography as part of perioperative assessment.