Acute carotid thrombosis and ischemic stroke following overdose of the synthetic cannabinoid K2 in a previously healthy young adult male.

With the popularity of synthetic cannabinoid street drugs such as "K2 and Spice," a number of serious neurologic adverse events are coming to light. This case is a 36-year-old African American man, with no significant medical history, who presented with extensive left cervical and intracranial internal carotid artery occlusion and subsequent ischemic stroke. The patient endorsed smoking K2-a synthetic cannabinoid (SC) with structural similarity to cannabis.

Extremely Preterm (23 Weeks) Vaginal Cephalic Delivery En Caul and Subsequent Postpartum Intraventricular Hemorrhage and Respiratory Distress: A Teaching Case.

En caul deliveries are defined as a fetus that is delivered completely contained within an amniotic sac and are considered to be less common than 1 in 80,000 live births. Vaginal en caul births compared to abdominal or cesarean are the rarest subtype. Most en caul births are associated with prematurity and low gravida.

Esophageal pneumatosis in the setting of small bowel ileus with acute resolution after nasogastric tube decompression.

Esophageal pneumatosis is a rare condition with diverse potential etiologies including traumatic, mechanical, ischemic, obstructive respiratory, autoimmune, immunodeficient, and infectious causes. Here, we present a case of esophageal pneumatosis in the setting of upper gastrointestinal and small bowel ileus, diagnosed on computed tomography (CT), with acute resolution after nasogastric tube decompression. A patient presented to the emergency department with epigastric discomfort.

Spinal subarachnoid and subdural hematoma presenting as a Brown-Séquard-like myelopathy following minor trauma in a patient on dabigatran etexilate.

Dabigatran etexilate is a relatively new anticoagulant from the class of direct thrombin inhibitors which is administered orally and does not require routine blood work monitoring. Dabigatran may be attractive to both clinicians and patients because of both its convenience and efficacy; however, clinical complications are still being elucidated. Here, we present a previously unreported case of spinal subarachnoid and subdural hematoma presenting as a Brown-Séquard-like myelopathy in a patient after minor trauma in the setting of Dabigatran anticoagulation.

Spontaneous subcutaneous emphysema of the scalp following hair coloring/treatment.

Subcutaneous emphysema of the scalp is a process often attributed to secondary factors such as trauma, infection, or a myriad of iatrogenic etiologies. Here, we are presenting a case report of an adult patient with spontaneous subcutaneous emphysema of the scalp following a hair coloring/treatment. We performed an extensive review of literature on this topic, however, could not find a single case with similar presentation of subcutaneous emphysema.

Characterization of autologous mesenchymal stem cell-derived neural progenitors as a feasible source of stem cells for central nervous system applications in multiple sclerosis.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell-derived neural progenitors (MSC-NPs) are a potential therapeutic source of cells that have been shown to be efficacious in a preclinical model of multiple sclerosis (MS). To examine the feasibility of using MSC-NPs as an autologous source of cells to promote central nervous system (CNS) repair in MS, this study characterized human MSC-NPs from a panel of both MS and non-MS donors. Expanded MSCs showed similar characteristics in terms of growth and cell surface phenotype, regardless of the donor disease status.