Motor Cortex Stimulation in Patients Suffering from Chronic Neuropathic Pain: Summary of Expert Meeting and Premeeting Questionnaire, Combined with Literature Review.

Background: Motor cortex stimulation (MCS) was introduced in the early 1990s by Tsubokawa and his group for patients diagnosed with drug-resistant, central neuropathic pain. Inconsistencies concerning the details of this therapy and its outcomes and poor methodology of most clinical essays divide the neuromodulation society worldwide into "believers" and "nonbelievers." A European expert meeting was organized in Brussels, Belgium by the Benelux Neuromodulation Society in order to develop uniform MCS protocols in the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative courses.

Single-port videoscopic splanchnotomy for palliation of refractory chronic pancreatitis.

Objectives: Interrupting the afferent signals that travel through the splanchnic nerves by multiportal thoracoscopic splanchnotomy can offer effective palliation in chronic pancreatitis. However, obtained results weaken after time, possibly necessitating repeat procedures. Given the palliative nature of this procedure, potential for iatrogenic damage should be kept at a minimum.

[Treatment of trigeminal neuralgia].

Classic idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia is characterized by sharp unilateral shooting pain in the distribution of one or more branches of the trigeminal nerve. It involves a diagnosis of exclusion. Initially, therapy consists of medical therapy, preferably with carbamazepine or oxcarbazepine.

Bispectral index values and propofol concentrations at loss and return of consciousness in patients with frontal brain tumours and control patients.

Background: The influence of frontal brain tumours on bispectral index (BIS) measurements and propofol requirements is unknown. The primary aim of our study was to determine whether BIS values recorded at loss and return of consciousness (LOC and ROC, respectively) differ between patients with unilateral frontal brain tumours and control patients. Secondary goals were to compare propofol requirements for LOC and to determine whether there were significant inter-hemispheric differences between BIS values in tumour and control patients.

Electrical neuromodulation for patients with cardiac diseases.

In this review we discuss the position of electrical neuromodulation as a safe and reversible adjuvant therapy for treatment of patients with chronic cardiac diseases who have become refractory to conventional strategies. In patients with chronic refractory angina, electrical neuromodulation, independent of the applied modality, has shown to reduce complaints of angina, to enhance exercise capacity, to improve quality of life and to employ anti-ischaemic effects. To date, electrical neuromodulation seems to be one of the best adjuvant therapies for these patients.