Navigable Channel-Based Trans-Sulcal Resection of Third Ventricular Colloid Cysts: A Multicenter Retrospective Case Series and Review of the Literature.

Background: Developments in frameless neuronavigation and tubular retractors hold the potential for minimizing iatrogenic injury to the overlying cortex and subcortical tracts, with improved access to the ventricular system. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the surgical outcomes after resection of third ventricular colloid cysts using an integrated neuronavigation and channel-based approach.

Methods: We performed a multicenter retrospective analysis of surgical Outcomes after surgical resection of third ventricular colloid cysts via a transtubular trans-sulcal approach.

The extended supracerebellar transtentorial approach for resection of medial tentorial meningiomas.

Background: The supracerebellar transtentorial (SCTT) approach has been established as a safe corridor to access the posteriomedial basal temporal region. Previous reports have demonstrated the efficacy of this route in the resection of intrinsic tumors and small arteriovenous malformations. Only one report in the English literature has described its use to resect a medial tentorial meningioma.

Effect of soy isoflavone supplementation on menopausal quality of life.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of soy isoflavone supplementation on quality of life in postmenopausal women.

Methods: A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 24-month trial was conducted to assess the effect of 80 or 120 mg of daily aglycone hypocotyl soy isoflavone supplementation on quality of life in 403 postmenopausal women using a validated Menopause-Specific Quality of Life questionnaire.

Results: Menopause-Specific Quality of Life domain scores at 1 year and 2 years were similar to baseline.

Clinical outcomes of a 2-y soy isoflavone supplementation in menopausal women.

Background: Soy isoflavones are naturally occurring phytochemicals with weak estrogenic cellular effects. Despite numerous clinical trials of short-term isoflavone supplementation, there is a paucity of data regarding longer-term outcomes and safety.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of soy hypocotyl isoflavone supplementation in healthy menopausal women as a secondary outcome of a trial on bone health.

Complication avoidance in minimally invasive neurosurgery.

Although minimally invasive neurosurgery (MIN) holds the potential for reducing the approach-related impact on normal brain, bone, and soft tissues, which must be manipulated in more conventional transcranial microneurosurgery, the techniques necessary to perform minimally invasive, yet maximally effective neurosurgery place significant demands on the surgeon because in many ways the more limited exposure creates a number of unique ways these operations can go wrong. Safe and effective MIN requires the conscious institution of specific alterations to the surgeon's usual operative case flow, which are designed to make specific well-known mistakes impossible or at least very unlikely. Thus, it is important for the aspiring MIN surgeons to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors and to institute patterns of behavior that prevent a repetition of these mistakes.

Distal revision of ventriculoperitoneal shunts using a peel-away sheath.

The authors describe a new technique for revision of an occluded distal ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter that obviates the need for laparotomy or trocar insertion into the peritoneal cavity. The authors review their early experience with 34 patients suffering from a distal ventriculoperitoneal shunt failure and treated with this technique. There were no incidents of intraabdominal injury or wound complications.

Soy isoflavone supplementation and bone mineral density in menopausal women: a 2-y multicenter clinical trial.

Background: Isoflavones are naturally occurring plant estrogens that are abundant in soy. Although purported to protect against bone loss, the efficacy of soy isoflavone supplementation in the prevention of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women remains controversial.

Objective: Our aim was to test the effect of soy isoflavone supplementation on bone health.

Various doses of soy isoflavones do not modify mammographic density in postmenopausal women.

Soy isoflavones have functional similarity to human estrogens and may protect against breast cancer as a result of their antiestrogenic activity or increase risk as a result of their estrogen-like properties. We examined the relation between isoflavone supplementation and mammographic density, a strong marker for breast cancer risk, among postmenopausal women. The Osteoporosis Prevention Using Soy (OPUS) study, a multi-site, randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled trial assigned 406 postmenopausal women to 80 or 120 mg/d of isoflavones each or a placebo for 2 y.

Menopausal symptoms and treatment-related effects of estrogen and progestin in the Women's Health Initiative.

Objective: To estimate the effects of estrogen plus progestin (E+P) therapy on menopausal symptoms, vaginal bleeding, gynecologic surgery rates, and treatment-related adverse effects in postmenopausal women.

Methods: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 16,608 postmenopausal women, ages 50-79 (mean +/- standard deviation 63.3 +/- 7.

Reproducibility of fan-beam DXA measurements in adults and phantoms.

As part of a multicenter study, we examined the intersite reproducibility of bone mineral content (BMC) and areal density (BMD) among three fan-beam dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) instruments from one manufacturer, all using the same software version. Spine, femur, and body-composition phantoms were each scanned nine times at each center. Over a 3-wk period, the same 10 adults were scanned once at each of the three centers.

Resection of a non-communicating uterine horn with use of the harmonic scalpel.

Background: Type IIA1b anomalies of the Mullerian system are rare. Traditionally, the method of treatment for such anomalies has been laparotomy.

Case: We discuss a case of this specific anomaly treated by resecting the non-communicating horn with the harmonic scalpel (Ethicon EndoSurgery, Cincinnati, Ohio) by first confirming a lack of communication with hysteroscopy, followed by chromotubation to demonstrate unilateral spill from the right side without leak from the area of dissection.