Effect of Body Mass Index on Paddle Lead Spinal Cord Stimulator Safety Implantation for Chronic Pain Management.

Objective: Spinal cord stimulators (SCS) represent an effective treatment for patients with chronic pain issues. This study examines extremely obese patients (body mass index [BMI] ≥40) as appropriate surgical candidates for paddle lead SCS trial via partial thoracic laminectomy and whether obesity impacts implantation safety.

Methods: A retrospective review of patients treated with partial thoracic laminectomy and paddle lead SCS trial between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2019 was performed.

High-resistance proximal "scaled" ventricular catheters.

Purpose: Prove the concept of high-resistance proximal catheters for valve-independent treatment of hydrocephalus.

Methods: A preliminary design process yielded optimal high-resistance proximal ventricular catheters with a "scaled" design and parallel-oriented, U-shaped inlets. Prototypes were manually constructed using carving tools to stamp through silicone tubings.

Varicella-Zoster Virus Infection and Osteomyelitis of the Skull.

Background: Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is a common herpesvirus infection that can result in acute varicella/chickenpox, as well as delayed activation in herpes zoster/shingles. Ramsay-Hunt syndrome is a rare presentation of VZV reactivation, involving 1% of cases and resulting in lesion formation along the seventh cranial nerve distribution. We report the first case of a patient who presented with acute calvarial osteomyelitis after VZV reactivation and Propionibacterium acnes suprainfection.

The role of postnatal neurogenesis in supporting remote memory and spatial metric processing.

In this study, we determined the contribution of juvenile neurogenesis to the performance of mice on a remote memory for temporally based association task and in a novelty based spatial pattern separation task. This was accomplished by mating homozygous DNMT1-loxP mice with heterozygous GFAP-Cre mice and comparing Cre+ (no postnatal neurogenesis) to Cre- (wild type) littermate offspring. The results indicate that Cre+ mice are impaired relative to Cre- mice in the remote memory for a temporal based association task and in a novelty based spatial pattern separation task.