Sarcopenia, but not frailty, predicts early mortality and adverse events after emergent surgery for metastatic disease of the spine.

Background Context: Frailty and sarcopenia variably predict adverse events (AEs) in a number of surgical populations.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of frailty and sarcopenia to independently predict early mortality and AEs following urgent surgery for metastatic disease of the spine.

Study Design: A single institution, retrospective cohort study.

Predicting Injury Severity and Neurological Recovery after Acute Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: A Comparison of Cerebrospinal Fluid and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Biomarkers.

Biomarkers of acute human spinal cord injury (SCI) could provide a more objective measure of spinal cord damage and a better predictor of neurological outcome than current standardized neurological assessments. In SCI, there is growing interest in establishing biomarkers from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Here, we compared the ability of CSF and MRI biomarkers to classify injury severity and predict neurological recovery in a cohort of acute cervical SCI patients.

Risk factors for recurrent shunt infections in children.

Risk factors for recurrent shunt-related cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) infections were analyzed. A total of 58 children were treated for initial shunt infections (ISI): all children were treated with antibiotics and CSF drainage, either by removal of the shunt system and insertion of an external ventricular drainage (EVD) catheter (44 children, 75.9%) or by externalization of the existing ventricular catheter (14 children, 24.

Sacroplasty: report of three cases.

Aim: Sacral stress fractures are rare fractures presenting themselves with low back and groin pain. These fractures can be treated effectively using sacroplasty.

Material And Methods: The clinical and radiological data of three cases that underwent sacroplasty for sacral stress fractures were reviewed.

Sacroiliac joint dysfunction.

Aim: Sacroiliac joint dysfunction is a disorder presenting with low back and groin pain. It should be taken into consideration during the preoperative differential diagnosis of lumbar disc herniation, lumbar spinal stenosis and facet syndrome.

Material And Methods: Four cases with sacroiliac dysfunction are presented.

Pigmented villonodular synovitis of a lumbar intervertebral facet joint.

Background Context: Pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) is a slowly progressive lesion of uncertain etiology that involves the synovial membrane of joints or tendon sheaths. Only rarely does PVNS affect the axial skeleton, where it arises from the vertebral articular facet joint. Its treatment and prognosis remains limited.

Intramedullary spinal cord metastasis: a rare and devastating complication of cancer--two case reports.

Two cases of very rare intramedullary spinal cord metastasis from colon carcinoma and renal carcinoma were treated primarily by microsurgical excision. A 44-year-old female presented with colon carcinoma metastasis manifesting as complete neurological deficit. She had undergone colon resection 2 years previously for colon carcinoma.

Removal of an anterior spinal dermoid cyst with fenestra corpectomy in Klippel-Feil syndrome: technical case report.

Objective And Importance: A spinal cord tumor occurring in association with Klippel-Feil syndrome is quite rare. The removal of an anteriorly located spinal cord tumor at the level of block vertebrae creates a surgical challenge.

Clinical Presentation: A case of an intradural extramedullary dermoid cyst located anterior to the spinal cord and a syringomyelic cavity at the level of block vertebrae in a 43-year-old woman with Klippel-Feil syndrome is presented.

The effects on prognosis of surgical treatment of hypertensive putaminal hematomas through transsylvian transinsular approach.

Objective: Hypertensive putaminal hematoma (HPH) is a devastating type of stroke that mostly results in death or severe neurologic deficit. There seems to be no general agreement on the selection of treatment modality for individual patients. In this study a comparison has been made between conservative treatment and the results of surgical treatment through the transsylvian transinsular approach of HPH with 30 cc or more.

MRI reveals reversible lesions resembling posterior reversible encephalopathy in porphyria.

We report a 20-year-old woman who had an attack of acute intermittent porphyria with seizures, hallucinations, autonomic and somatic neuropathy. T2-weighted MRI revealed multiple lesions which were no longer visible 3 months later. We suggest a similar mechanism to posterior reversible encephalopathy underlying cerebral symptoms in porphyria.