Introduction: Instant messaging applications (MAs) represent a major component of modern telecommunications for data transmission. During overseas deployments, military doctors increasingly rely on MAs due to their availability and the urgent need to obtain advice from specialists for optimal patient management. In this study, we aimed to describe and analyze the context and usage characteristics of these MAs for transmitting medical data by military general practitioners (GPs) during overseas missions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article aims to describe the French concept regarding combat casualty neurosurgical care from the theater of operations to a homeland hospital. French military neurosurgeons are not routinely deployed to all combat zones. As a consequence, general surgeons initially treat neurosurgical wounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: France deployed to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014 within the International Security and Assistance Force. A French role 3 hospital was built in 2009 in the vicinity of Kabul International Airport (KaIA). The objectives of this study were to describe the epidemiology, management, and outcome of war-related craniocerebral injuries during the Afghan campaign in a French role 3 hospital.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In 2009, during the war in Afghanistan, the increasing number of head injuries led to the deployment of a military neurosurgeon at the Kabul International Airport (KaIA) medical treatment facility, in March 2010. The main goal of this study was to depict the neurosurgical activity in this centre and to analyse its different aspects.
Method: A retrospective study of all the neurosurgical patients treated in KaIA from March 2010 to June 2013.
Purpose: Although there is no standard treatment for recurrent glioblastoma, prospective data in selected patients have suggested the usefulness of bevacizumab. We report our single center experience with bevacizumab in a cohort of patients treated for a relapsing glioblastoma.
Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients treated with bevacizumab for a relapsed glioblastoma, between 2008 and 2013.
Background: We present here a description of the experience in whole-blood transfusion of a health service team deployed to a medical treatment facility in Afghanistan from June 2011 to October 2011. The aim of our work was to show how a "walking blood bank" could provide a sufficient supply.
Methods: We gathered the blood-group types of military personnel deployed to the theater of operations to evaluate our "potential walking blood bank," and we compared these data with our needs.
We retrospectively assessed the outcome of patients receiving emergency spinal radiation therapy (RT) concurrently with bevacizumab. Clinical records of 18 consecutive patients receiving emergency spinal RT for symptomatic vertebral metastases during the course of bevacizumab-based therapy were examined. Patients were receiving biweekly bevacizumab combined with paclitaxel (n=17) or with docetaxel/carboplatin (n=1) or as a single agent (n=1) for advanced metastatic carcinoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe folate antimetabolite pemetrexed was approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic nonsquamous non-small-cell lung carcinoma. Its activity on brain metastases makes pemetrexed attractive in combination with whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT), but it could also potentially increase toxicity. We examined the medical records of 43 consecutive patients with brain metastases from non-small-cell lung carcinoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The aim of this study was to compare various acquisition and processing protocols for noninvasive glioma grading using either static or dynamic (18)F-FDopa PET.
Methods: Dynamic studies were performed in 33 patients. Based on histopathological analysis, 18 patients had a high-grade (HG) tumor and 15 patients had a low-grade (LG) tumor.
Extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas (EMC) are extremely rare and are usually located in the deep soft tissues of the lower extremities. Less than 10 cases of intracranial EMC have been reported in the literature, making their management and early diagnosis difficult. We present a new case of intracranial EMC occurring in a 70-year-old woman presenting with a right frontal mass initially assumed to be a brain metastasis from breast adenocarcinoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVertex epidural hematomas (VEDHs) are an uncommon situation and difficulties may be encountered in their diagnosis and management. This is more complicated when the surgical management has to be performed by general surgeons, not specialized in neurosurgery, in a remote location. It was in this context that we were brought to care in charge a 2-year-old boy who required a neurosurgical emergency rescue for a severe VEDH in Djibouti.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe authors present the French concept of a mobile neurosurgical unit (MNSU) as used to provide specific support to remote military medicosurgical units deployed in Africa, South America, Central Europe, and Afghanistan. From 2001 to 2009, 15 missions were performed, for 16 patients. All but 3 of these missions (those in Kosovo, French Guyana, and Afghanistan) concerned Africa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report a case of associated vertebromedullary and ureteral lesions in a severely injured patient, a victim of a gunshot aggression in Africa. Urine extended from the ureteral fistula through the third lumbar vertebral body, blended with cerebrospinal fluid from the dural attrition, and flowed very slowly through the dorsal exit ballistic hole. This is to our knowledge the first such case described in the literature.
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