Deep brain stimulation parameters associated with neuropsychological changes in subthalamic nucleus stimulation for refractory Parkinson's disease.

Background/aims: Parkinson's disease (PD) is an idiopathic progressive neurological disorder. Improvement in motor function of PD patients has been established with subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS). While variations in DBS settings (i.

A 15-year-old female with progressive myelopathy.

March 2005. A 15-year-old female presented with urinary retention, inability to walk and low back pain. MRI disclosed an elongated epidural mass in the thoracic spine with cord compression and invasion into the surrounding bone and soft tissue.

Visual field defects in deformational posterior plagiocephaly.

Purpose: We sought to determine whether visual field abnormalities occur in infants with deformational posterior plagiocephaly and to assess whether there is a relationship between the severity and laterality of visual field abnormalities with the severity and laterality of skull deformity.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on 40 consecutive infants with deformational posterior plagiocephaly. Each was tested with standardized binocular arc perimetry in the horizontal plane.

The relative localizing value of interictal and immediate postictal SPECT in seizures of temporal lobe origin.

Unlabelled: Although interictal hypoperfusion and ictal hyperperfusion are established localizing findings in partial epilepsy, their relative value is disputed. After a meta analysis of several published articles on SPECT brain imaging in patients with epilepsy (with extractable data on at least 6 patients per article), institutions using SPECT for evaluation of epilepsy have been encouraged to perform ictal scanning or interictal and postictal SPECT studies.

Methods: We compared the relative localizing values of hypoperfusion in video-electroencephalographically (EEG) monitored interictal SPECT (IISPECT) and hyperperfusion in immediate postictal or periictal SPECT (PISPECT) in nonlesional patients who underwent temporal lobectomies in our epilepsy center from 1995 to 1998.

Regeneration of rat sciatic nerve across a LactoSorb bioresorbable conduit with interposed short-segment nerve grafts.

Object: This study was conducted to evaluate peripheral nerve regeneration through a conduit composed of a bioresorbable material (LactoSorb).

Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats weighing approximately 250 g were randomized into five groups. A 20-mm-long sciatic nerve gap was created, then it was bridged by a reverse nerve autograft (Group I), an empty silicone tube (Group II), a silicone tube containing a short (2-mm) interposed nerve segment (Group III), an empty LactoSorb conduit (Group IV), or a LactoSorb conduit containing a 2-mm interposed nerve segment (Group V).

Skull base approaches and gamma knife radiosurgery for multimodality treatment of skull base tumors.

Object: The purpose of this study was to evaluate descriptive data obtained in patients who had received multimodality treatment with resection and gamma knife radiosurgery (GKS) for skull base tumors. Retrospective data were collected from 71 patients with skull base tumors who were treated from November 1996 to December 2000, all of whom underwent follow-up evaluation at 1 year or more.

Methods: Data were collected from hospital charts and office records, including patient age, tumor type and location, number of tumors, maximum radiation dose, estimated radiation dose to the periphery, tumor volume, and percentage of patients with tumors smaller or the same size at follow-up evaluation.