Influence of the Severity of Osteogenesis Imperfecta on Cranial Measurements.

Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) is a disease that causes bone fragility and deformities, affecting both the cranial base and the craniocervical junction, and may lead to other neurological disorders. A retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out based on cephalometric analysis of the cranial base in a sample of patients with OI, in lateral skull radiographs and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), comparing them with a sample of age-matched controls. When the different variables of the craniocervical junction were analyzed, significance was found in comparisons with the different age groups.

Intraoperative Cortico-Cortical Evoked Potentials for Monitoring Language Function during Brain Tumor Resection in Anesthetized Patients.

Background: Cortico-cortical evoked potentials (CCEPs) have been used to map the frontal (FLA) and parietal (PLA) cortical regions related to language function. However, they have usually been employed as a complementary method during sleep-awake surgery.

Methods: Five male and two female patients received surgery for tumors located near language areas.

Neuroanatomical and psychological considerations in temporal lobe epilepsy.

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common form of focal epilepsy and is associated with a variety of structural and psychological alterations. Recently, there has been renewed interest in using brain tissue resected during epilepsy surgery, in particular 'non-epileptic' brain samples with normal histology that can be found alongside epileptic tissue in the same epileptic patients - with the aim being to study the normal human brain organization using a variety of methods. An important limitation is that different medical characteristics of the patients may modify the brain tissue.

Neurosurgical Treatment of Pain.

The aim of this review is to draw attention to neurosurgical approaches for treating chronic and opioid-resistant pain. In a first chapter, an up-to-date overview of the main pathophysiological mechanisms of pain has been carried out, with special emphasis on the details in which the surgical treatment is based. In a second part, the principal indications and results of different surgical approaches are reviewed.

Surgical treatment of brainstem cavernous malformations: an international Delphi consensus.

Objective: Indication for surgery in brainstem cavernous malformations (BSCMs) is based on many case series, few comparative studies, and no randomized controlled trials. The objective of this study was to seek consensus about surgical management aspects of BSCM.

Methods: A total of 29 experts were invited to participate in a multistep Delphi consensus process on the surgical treatment of BSCM.

Long term outcome and fusion rate of transdiscal fixation for L5-S1 high grade spondylolisthesis.

Objective: High grade spondylolisthesis (HGS) is a quite rare entity and many techniques are available to address this condition. In 1994 Abdu et al. proposed a transdiscal fixation approach that achieved a good clinical outcome.

Network Substrates of Centromedian Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation in Generalized Pharmacoresistant Epilepsy.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS), specifically thalamic DBS, has achieved promising results to reduce seizure severity and frequency in pharmacoresistant epilepsies, thereby establishing it for clinical use. The mechanisms of action are, however, still unknown. We evidenced the brain networks directly modulated by centromedian (CM) nucleus-DBS and responsible for clinical outcomes in a cohort of patients uniquely diagnosed with generalized pharmacoresistant epilepsy.

Language hemispheric dominance analyzed with magnetic resonance DTI: correlation with the Wada test.

Objective: Language lateralization is a major concern in some patients with pharmacoresistant epilepsy who will face surgery; in these patients, hemispheric dominance testing is essential to avoid further complications. The Wada test is considered the gold standard examination for language localization, but is invasive and requires many human and material resources. Functional MRI and tractography with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have demonstrated that they could be useful for locating language in epilepsy surgery, but there is no evidence of the correlation between the Wada test and DTI MRI in language dominance.

Does reintervention improve survival in recurrent glioblastoma? Facing a temporal bias in the literature.

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most frequent intraaxial malignant brain tumour, in which recurrence management is a frequent and demanding issue. Recently, reintervention has emerged as a useful tool for treatment. However, some new evidence has shown that most of the articles published could have overestimated its effects.

Prediction of Memory Impairment in Epilepsy Surgery by White Matter Diffusion.

Objective: To analyze the relationship between cognitive performance and white matter integrity in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) to establish radiologic criteria to help with patient selection for surgery.

Methods: The study included 19 adults with temporal lobe epilepsy. A tractography analysis of fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity (MD) of the following fascicles was performed: arcuate fascicle, cingulum, fornix, inferior fronto-occipital fascicle, inferior longitudinal fascicle, parahippocampal fibers of the cingulum, and uncinate fascicle.

How I do it? Lumbar cortical bone trajectory fixation with image-guided neuronavigation.

Background: Cortical bone trajectory was described in 2009 to reduce screw loosening in osteoporotic patients. Since then, it has demonstrated improvements in biomechanical and perioperative results compared to pedicle screws, and it have been described as a minimally invasive technique.

Method: We describe our experience with the technique assisted by 3D neuronavigation and review some of the complications and tools to avoid them together with limitations and pitfalls.

Prediction of Laterality in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Using White Matter Diffusion Metrics.

Background: Diagnostic methods of the epileptogenic area continue to be a challenge in epilepsy surgery research. We hypothesized that temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) will result in white matter changes that can be detected using diffusion tensor imaging. Measurement of white matter diffusivity will therefore be useful for presurgical assessment.

Intrachiasmatic craniopharyngioma: Assessment of visual outcome with optical coherence tomography after complete surgical removal.

Background: Optic chiasm invasion by a craniopharyngioma (CP) is exceptional. Surgical treatment of intrachiasmatic CPs associates a high risk of chiasm injury, which should be properly addressed before surgery.

Case Description: We present a 46-year-old woman admitted to the hospital with low visual acuity (0.

Potential EEG biomarkers of sedation doses in intensive care patients unveiled by using a machine learning approach.

Objective: Sedation of neurocritically ill patients is one of the most challenging situation in ICUs. Quantitative knowledge on the sedation effect on brain activity in that complex scenario could help to uncover new markers for sedation assessment. Hence, we aim to evaluate the existence of changes of diverse EEG-derived measures in deeply-sedated (RASS-Richmond agitation-sedation scale  -4 and  -5) neurocritically ill patients, and also whether sedation doses are related with those eventual changes.

Morphometrical evaluation of decompression obtained through corpectomy. Heading towards to posterior approaches.

Introduction: We analysed the decompression obtained by dorsal or dorsolumbar corpectomy measured by Cobb angle and the spinal area prior to and after surgery and compared the evolution of the technique over the last five years of the study.

Material And Method: A retrospective review of patients operated between 2005 and 2015 through anterior or posterior approaches was performed.

Results: 24 patients were studied and a significant improvement was observed between the preoperative and postoperative morphometrical measurement (4.

Identifying causal relationships between EEG activity and intracranial pressure changes in neurocritical care patients.

Objective: To explore and assess the relationship between electroencephalography (EEG) activity and intracranial pressure (ICP) in patients suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI) and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) during their stay in an intensive care unit.

Approach: We performed an observational prospective cohort study of adult patients suffering from TBI or SAH. Continuous EEG-ECG was performed during ICP monitoring.

Validation of Grading Scores and Outcome Prognostic Factors in Intracranial Meningiomas in Elderly Patients.

Objective: Meningiomas are the most frequent benign intracranial tumors and they are becoming more frequent because of the aging population and advances in diagnostics and neurosurgical treatment. Therefore, there will be an increase of this disease in the coming years.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients older than 70 years who underwent surgery for intracranial meningiomas, and we established risk factors related to outcome, morbidity, and mortality.

Image guidance in transdiscal fixation for high-grade spondylolisthesis in adults with correct spinal balance.

OBJECTIVE Spondylolisthesis is a prevalent spine disease that recent studies estimate could be detected in 9% of the population. High-grade spondylolisthesis (HGS), however, is much less frequent, which makes it difficult to develop a general recommendation for its treatment. Posterior transdiscal fixation was proposed in 1994 for HGS, and the use of spine navigation could make this technique more accessible and reduce the morbidity associated with the procedure.

Review of Cortical Bone Trajectory: Evidence of a New Technique.

This article summarizes recent evidence on the cortical bone trajectory (CBT) obtained from published anatomical, biomechanical, and clinical studies. CBT was proposed by Santoni in 2009 as a new trajectory that can improve the fixation of pedicle screws in response to screw loosening in osteoporotic patients. Recently, research interest has been growing with increasing numbers of published series and frequent reports of new applications.

Usefulness of Reintervention in Recurrent Glioblastoma: An Indispensable Weapon for Increasing Survival.

Background: Glioblastoma is the most frequent primary brain tumor and despite of complete treatment survival is still poor. The aim of this study is to define the utility of reoperation for improving survival in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, and determine other prognostic factors associated with longer survival.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of those patients who underwent surgery and compared those who were operated two or more times and those who received surgery only once.

Network Analysis of Foramen Ovale Electrode Recordings in Drug-resistant Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Patients.

Approximately 30% of epilepsy patients are refractory to antiepileptic drugs. In these cases, surgery is the only alternative to eliminate/control seizures. However, a significant minority of patients continues to exhibit post-operative seizures, even in those cases in which the suspected source of seizures has been correctly localized and resected.

Corrigendum to "Plasma Albumin Induces Cytosolic Calcium Oscilations and DNA Synthesis in Human Cultured Astrocytes".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2014/539140.].

[Myelopathy secondary to an aneurysmal bone cyst of thoracic spine].

Introduction: Spinal aneurysmal bone cysts are very infrequent benign osteolytic lesions consisting of blood-filled cavities that are separated by osteo-connective septa and osteoclast-type giant cells. Clinically they manifest with local pain, neurological symptoms secondary to spinal cord compression, and fractures, deformities and vertebral instability. We report a case of an aneurysmal bone cyst in the thoracic spine with neurological signs and symptoms treated by means of a full microsurgical resection, with no associated neurological sequelae.