Protecting vision with intraoperative visual evoked potentials and tractography in transcortical brain tumor surgery.

Objective: Intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) is nowadays a gold standard during brain tumor resections, but visual function mapping is less frequently performed in clinical practice. This article aims to report two transcortical brain tumor surgery cases affecting optic radiation, where the application of intraoperative visual evoked potentials (VEP) combined with tractography was beneficial to protect the patients' vision.

Methods: Two patients with brain tumors compressing the left posterior visual pathways underwent surgery under general anesthesia using IONM and VEP with neurologic improvement and preservation of vision.

Women in spine surgery: can we change the society?

Background: Although the number of educated women and physicians, and especially neurosurgeons, is increasing worldwide, the educational opportunities, careers, and beliefs concerning female neurosurgeon's status and abilities are undermined. To date, reported studies have focused on the conditions of the work environment, work-life balance, and the academic career of female neurosurgeons. In this study, we aimed to report the patients' viewpoint and how they choose spine physicians.

Risk factors for pediatric glioma.

Brain tumours are a heterogenic group, a subtype of which is arising from glial cells. Pediatric low-grade gliomas are the most common primary CNS tumour group in childhood, representing 25% to over 30% of pediatric CNS tumours. Pediatric high-grade gliomas are relatively rare and have a poor prognosis.

"Security dilemma": active immunotherapy before versus after radiation therapy alone or chemo-radiotherapy for newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

Management of glioblastoma should be aggressive and personalised to increase the quality of life. Many new therapies, such as active immunotherapy, increase the overall survival, yet they result in complications which render the search for the optimal treatment stra-tegy challenging.

Vertigo: Could this Symptom Indicate the Existence of an Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysm?

Unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) can be presented with various symptoms, including atypical headaches and cranial nerve deficits. Vertigo is often referred in the literature as a coexisting symptom. Our aim was to investigate the importance of vertigo in the UIA symptomatology and present a possible explanation for its existence.

Gross total resection with fluorescence could lead to improved overall survival rates: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Glioblastoma cases are often treated with aggressive resection. Recent studies have suggested that extended surgical resection could improve survival. Improved extent of resection could be afforded by the use of fluorescence during surgery.

Anatomical Localization of Traumatic Brain Injury Cases in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Greece: a 10-year Retrospective Observational Study.

Objective: Brain trauma is an extremely important economical and social issue with increasing daily incidence. It is important to observe and report brain trauma, in order to provide better conditions for improvement of the trauma prevention and management.

Methods: A ten-year retrospective observational analysis was performed on 292 (fatal and non-fatal) incidents of traumatic brain injury among 2,847 totally examined cases in the records of the laboratory of forensic sciences at Democritus University of Thrace between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2016.

Traumatic Brain Injury and the Importance of Neurosurgical Care: 10-year Retrospective Study on Cadavers.

Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to transport accidents is a serious cause of death and disability. In every case, however, quick response and a proper health care are required.

Materials And Methods: We collected 10-year data retrospectively from the laboratory of forensic science and toxicology in Montana, Bulgaria with the intention to show the importance of neurosurgical care in the traumatology and its connection to mortality rate.

The Clock Is Ticking - Brain Atrophy in Case of Acute Trauma?

Objective: Brain atrophy and brain herniation are gaining a lot of attention separately, but a limited amount of studies connected them together, and because of this, we are going to review and examine the subject in the current meta-analysis.

Methods: The authors collected data reporting brain atrophy of alcoholic and schizophrenic cause, as well as data on control patients, all of which was published on MEDLINE between 1996 and 2018. The included 11 articles were processed with a statistical program.

Does Nationality Matter for the Gunshot Brain Injury? Ten-Year Retrospective Observational Cadaveric Comparative Study for Gunshot TBI between Greece and Bulgaria.

Objective: Penetrating brain trauma (PBT) caused by gunshot is one of the most lethal traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and its management and confrontation is of great importance.

Methods: The authors searched retrospectively the archives from 2 similar autonomous laboratories of forensic science and toxicology in the Balkan peninsula for a 10-year period of time and included only fatal penetrating brain injuries.

Results: The study is conducted in 61 cadavers with gunshot PBT.

An incidental intracranial lesion in a young woman with head trauma: The key role of CT bone reconstruction in the diagnosis of an osteoma of the anterior cranial fossa.

A young female was subjected to brain CT due to head trauma after a car accident. A lesion was found in the area of the right frontal lobe raising concern. After reconstruction of the CT slices, the radiologic features indicated a skull base osteoma, without the need for further intervention.

Pediatric Dilemma: Endovascular versus Surgical Intervention for Spinal Vascular Malformations.

Objective: Spinal arteriovenous malformations (AVM) manifest in the pediatric population very differently from the ones in adulthood. Despite that fact, the treatment strategy is quite the same, which provokes a question - whether some of the therapies have an advantage and if so, in which age group.

Methods: For this reason, the authors searched the world literature between 1989 and 2018 for spinal AVM in children and further categorized the studies into two age groups: < 12 and ≥12.

The Basic Steps of Evolution of Brain Surgery.

Objective And Conclusion: Neurosurgery is probably the most constantly developing specialty of all times. Its dimension is enormous and its history, Ancient. The evolution of neurosurgery from the Mayan and Egyptian periods to the Renaissance and the 21st century was the result of many physicians and patients whose experiences lead to the revolution of modernization.

Traumatic Brain Injury Due to Screwdriver Assaults: Literature Review and Case Report.

Penetrating head injuries due to the use of screwdrivers as wounding agents in acts of interpersonal violence seldom occur. The aim of this article is to update and summarize the relevant literature on penetrating craniocerebral screwdriver stab wounds and to report a new case of screwdriver assault. A number of studies were reviewed to investigate the incidence, distribution, common findings, mechanism of injury, differential diagnostic criteria, complications, treatment, and prognosis of craniocerebral screwdriver stab injuries.

Prediction of Lumbar Disc Herniation Patients' Satisfaction with the Aid of an Artificial Neural Network.

Aim: To identify key determinants of lumbar disc herniation (LDH) patients' satisfaction and to evaluate the efficiency of an artificial neural network (ANN) model to prognosticate satisfaction derived from the hospital stay in this specific patient group.

Material And Methods: A single item question was used to assess patient satisfaction. Principal component analysis evaluated several aspects of care (15 items).

An atypical meningioma demystified and advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques.

A 40-year-old male presented with visuospatial processing disturbances. Family history was free. Conventional and advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies were performed.

Is there a Role for Spect with (99m)Tc-Tetrofosmin in the Diagnostic Work Up of a Brain Tumor?

Brain MRI is the gold standard for diagnosis of brain tumors. In some cases preoperative MRI cannot predict the grade of malignancy, diagnostic information that could be very helpful to the surgeon. In such cases functional imaging with nuclear medicine techniques may prove quite useful.

Organizational issues in stroke treatment: The Swiss paradigm - Stroke units.

Stroke represents the leading cause of acquired disability in adults and poses a tremendous socioeconomic burden both on patients and the society. In this sense, prompt diagnosis and urgent treatment are needed in order to radically reduce the devastating consequences of this disease. Herein the authors present the new guidelines recently adopted by the Swiss Stroke Society concerning the establishment of stroke units.