Clinical neurology and neurosurgery
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Clin Neurol Neurosurg · Feb 2007
Case ReportsHistoplasmoma: isolated central nervous system infection with Histoplasma capsulatum in a patient with AIDS. Case report and brief review of the literature.
Histoplasma capsulatum is endemic to the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. Exposure to H. capsulatum is very common in this region and usually follows a benign clinical course. However, immunocompromised hosts, like those with HIV/AIDS, are more susceptible to symptomatic infection, and have a greater chance of developing disseminated disease. ⋯ The lesion enlarged over a period of months, and he underwent radiation therapy after the lesion caused obstructive hydrocephalus. He expired soon after completion of radiation therapy. At autopsy, the mass lesion was noted to contain organisms constant with H. capsulatum, pathologically consistent with a histoplasmoma.
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Clin Neurol Neurosurg · Jan 2007
Case ReportsA five-generation family with occipital encephalocele.
This study reports a Chinese family that has suffered from occipital encephalocele over five generations with a pattern of autosomal dominant inheritance. There were 113 family members in this family, and 21 of them had an occipital subscalp encephalocele. The patients with the disease showed normal or nearly normal neurological function.
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Clin Neurol Neurosurg · Dec 2006
Use of polytetrafluoroethylene dural substitute as adhesion preventive material during craniectomies.
We describe the use of an artificial dural substitute in order to prevent peridural fibrosis in patients who underwent craniectomy and subsequent cranioplasty. ⋯ Polytetrafluoroethylene dural substitute is able to prevent peridural scarring and is very efficient in facilitating cranioplasty in patients who underwent craniectomy regardless the indication.
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Neuromuscular disorders in the background of critical illness are under diagnosed. Standardized screening for weakness in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting is uncommon and persistent weakness as a sequel of critical illness is usually not recognized by physicians in the ICU for whom survival from acute illness is the primary outcome. The spectrum of illness ranges from isolated nerve entrapment with focal pain or weakness, to disuse muscle atrophy with mild weakness, and to severe myopathy or neuropathy with associated severe, prolonged weakness. This update focuses on neuromuscular disorders occurring in the critical care set up associated with diffuse and severe weakness.
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Clin Neurol Neurosurg · Oct 2006
Medically refractory epilepsy associated with temporal lobe ganglioglioma: characteristics and postoperative outcome.
To define the postoperative seizure outcome and its predictors in patients with ganglioglioma-related temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). ⋯ We emphasize that, in patients with temporal lobe ganglioglioma, when the seizures are medically refractory, surgery offers potential for cure of epilepsy in the majority.