Outcomes of spinal cord injury following cervical fracture in ankylosing spondylitis and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH): A prospective cohort study.

Introduction: The ankylosed spine is prone to increased fractures risk even after minor trauma. The lower cervical spine is most frequently injured, and fractures of the ankylosed spine tend to precipitate spinal cord injury (SCI). The objective of the current study is to assess the incidence, management, and outcomes of patients with ankylosis of the spine sustaining a cervical fracture with associated SCI over a 7-year period.

Reducing Surgical Site Infection in Pediatric Scoliosis Surgery: A Multidisciplinary Improvement Program and Prospective 4-Year Audit.

Study Design: Single-center prospective cohort.

Objectives: To evaluate a multidisciplinary led, structured protocol for reducing surgical site infections (SSIs) in pediatric scoliosis surgery.

Methods: Following a spike to 8.

The local thermal effect of using monopolar electrosurgery in the presence of a deep brain stimulator: Cadaveric studies on a lamb brain.

In 2001, a patient with a deep brain stimulator (DBS) died following treatment with medical diathermy. Manufacturers have since advised against all forms of diathermy except bipolar electrosurgery in DBS patients. This effective ban on monopolar electrosurgery has an impact on the 150,000 patients treated with DBS to date, a number that is set to progressively increase.

Invasive sinonasal adenocarcinoma with an absent olfactory bulb: a case report.

Sinonasal adenocarcinomas are rare, locally invasive tumours. In this case the symptomatic profile was unusual and the diagnosis was missed at the primary care stage. Interestingly this would be the first documented case with an absent ipsilateral olfactory bulb.

Cranioplasty outcomes and associated complications: A single-centre observational study.

Introduction: The resurgence of decompressive craniectomy has led to recent published reviews of the safety of cranioplasties. To date there is a wide range of reported mortality and morbidity. This observational study reports the outcomes of the cranioplasty operations from a single centre and evaluates the factors involved in their management.

Intracranial abscess in Ectopia Cordis.

We present a case of intracranial abscess in a young female with Ectopia Cordis, an exceptionally rare cardiac condition. The neurosurgical implication is the predisposition to intracranial abscess formation. A heightened awareness of this association will aid diagnosis in similar clinical scenarios.

Neurosarcoidosis mimicking acute cervical disc prolapse.

We describe the case of a 29-year-old farmer who developed upper limb radiculopathy followed by myelopathy in his lower limbs. MRI findings suggested cervical disc prolapse with cord changes. Despite a successful anterior cervical decompression and fusion his symptoms rapidly returned.

Transverse sinus stenoses in benign intracranial hypertension demonstrated on CT venography.

Catheter studies show that patients with benign intracranial hypertension (BIH) frequently have high pressures in the intracranial venous sinuses proximal to stenotic lesions in the transverse sinuses. These lesions have now been demonstrated on MR venography. This study investigated whether they would be visible on CT.

Detection and evaluation of intracranial aneurysms with 16-row multislice CT angiography.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of 16-row multislice CT angiography (CTA) in evaluating intracranial aneurysms, by comparison with conventional digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and intraoperative findings.

Methods: A consecutive series of 57 patients, scheduled for DSA for suspected intracranial aneurysm, was prospectively recruited to have CTA. This was performed with a 16-detector row machine, detector interval 0.

Persistent alterations in dendrites, spines, and dynorphinergic synapses in the nucleus accumbens shell of rats with neuroleptic-induced dyskinesias.

Chronic treatment of humans or experimental animals with classical neuroleptic drugs can lead to abnormal, tardive movements that persist long after the drugs are withdrawn. A role in these neuroleptic-induced dyskinesias may be played by a structural change in the shell of the nucleus accumbens where the opioid peptide dynorphin is upregulated in treated rats that show vacuous chewing movements (VCMs). The shell of the nucleus accumbens normally contains a dense plexus of dynorphinergic fibers especially in its caudomedial part.