Journal of neurosurgery. Pediatrics
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J Neurosurg Pediatr · Sep 2014
Multicenter StudyEndoscopic third ventriculostomy and choroid plexus cauterization in infants with hydrocephalus: a retrospective Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network study.
The use of endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) with choroid plexus cauterization (CPC) has been advocated as an alternative to CSF shunting in infants with hydrocephalus. There are limited reports of this procedure in the North American population, however. The authors provide a retrospective review of the experience with combined ETV + CPC within the North American Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network (HCRN). ⋯ The early North American multicenter experience with ETV + CPC in infants demonstrates that the procedure has reasonable safety in selected cases. The degree of CPC achieved might be associated with a surgeon's learning curve and appears to affect success, suggesting that surgeon training might improve results.
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J Neurosurg Pediatr · Sep 2014
Case ReportsOgilvie's syndrome after pediatric spinal deformity surgery: successful treatment with neostigmine.
Ogilvie's syndrome is a rare and potentially fatal disease that can easily be mistaken for postoperative ileus. Also known as acute colonic pseudo-obstruction, early recognition and diagnosis of the syndrome allows for treatment prior to bowel perforation and requisite abdominal surgery. The authors report a case of Ogilvie's syndrome following spinal deformity correction and tethered cord release in an adolescent who presented with acute abdominal distension, nausea, and vomiting on postoperative Day 0. ⋯ Despite this treatment, her clinical course failed to improve, and she demonstrated significant colonic distension radiographically. Intravenous neostigmine was administered as a bolus with a rapid and dramatic response. This case is the first reported instance of neostigmine use for Ogilvie's syndrome treatment following a pediatric neurosurgical operation.
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J Neurosurg Pediatr · Sep 2014
Case ReportsPreservation of microelectrode recordings with non-GABAergic drugs during deep brain stimulator placement in children.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become accepted therapy for intractable dystonia and other movement disorders. The accurate placement of DBS electrodes into the globus pallidus internus is assisted by unimpaired microelectrode recordings (MERs). Many anesthetic and sedative drugs interfere with MERs, requiring the patient to be awake for target localization and neurological testing during the procedure. In this study, a novel anesthetic technique was investigated in pediatric DBS to preserve MERs. ⋯ Microelectrode recordings in pediatric DBS can be preserved with a combination of dexmedetomidine and ketamine, remifentanil, and nicardipine. This preservation of MERs is particularly crucial in electrode placement in children.
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J Neurosurg Pediatr · Sep 2014
Case ReportsReal-time functional mapping: potential tool for improving language outcome in pediatric epilepsy surgery.
Accurate language localization expands surgical treatment options for epilepsy patients and reduces the risk of postsurgery language deficits. Electrical cortical stimulation mapping (ESM) is considered to be the clinical gold standard for language localization. While ESM affords clinically valuable results, it can be poorly tolerated by children, requires active participation and compliance, carries a risk of inducing seizures, is highly time consuming, and is labor intensive. ⋯ While overlapping with ESM in the superior temporal region, RTFM showed a few other areas of activation related to expressive language function, areas that were eventually resected during the surgery. The authors speculate that this resection may be associated with observed postsurgical expressive language deficits. With additional validation in more subjects, this finding would suggest that surgical planning and associated assessment of the risk/benefit ratio would benefit from information provided by RTFM mapping.