Neurosurgery
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A patient-oriented classification scheme for facial pains commonly encountered in neurosurgical practice is proposed. ⋯ This diagnostic classification would allow more rigorous and objective natural history and outcome studies of facial pain in the future.
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The optimal surgical treatment for symptomatic temporal arachnoid cysts is controversial. Therapeutic options include cyst shunting, endoscopic fenestration, and craniotomy for fenestration. We reviewed the results for patients who were treated primarily with craniotomy and fenestration at our institution, to provide a baseline for comparisons of the efficacies of other treatment modalities. ⋯ A microsurgical keyhole approach to arachnoid cyst fenestration is a safe effective method for treating middle fossa cysts. This procedure can be performed with minimal morbidity via a minicraniotomy. Compared with an endoscopic approach, better control of hemostasis can be obtained, because of the ability to use bipolar forceps and other standard instruments. The operative time and length of hospital stay were not excessively increased.
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Biography Historical Article
The assassination of President John F Kennedy: a neuroforensic analysis--part 1: a neurosurgeon's previously undocumented eyewitness account of the events of November 22, 1963.
SUBSTANTIAL LITERATURE EXISTS on the assassination and subsequent pathological examination of President John F. Kennedy. The Warren Report, the United States Government's official report on the assassination, instead of providing definitive answers on the precise cause of President Kennedy's death, sparked intense and on-going debate. ⋯ A neuroforensic analysis of the wounds, from the perspective of the neurosurgeon, would establish a reasonable hypothesis for the mechanics of the shooting. Eyewitness accounts of the events surrounding the assassination represent one critical source of data for such an analysis. This report provides a previously undocumented neurosurgeon's eyewitness account of what transpired in Trauma Room 1 of Parkland Memorial Hospital on November 22, 1963.
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The management of cerebellar infarctions is controversial. The aim of this study was to determine which patients require surgical treatment and which surgical procedure should be performed when a patient with a cerebellar infarction exhibits progressive neurological deterioration. ⋯ For patients with worsening levels of consciousness and radiologically evident ventricular enlargement, we recommend external ventricular drainage. We reserve surgical resection of necrotic tissue for patients whose clinical status worsens despite ventriculostomy, those for whom worsening is accompanied by signs of brainstem compression, and those with tight posterior fossae.
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Hyperperfusion syndrome is a rare and potentially devastating complication of carotid endarterectomy or carotid artery angioplasty and stenting. With the advent of new imaging techniques, we reviewed our experience with this phenomenon. ⋯ Hyperperfusion syndrome may be more common and more variable in clinical presentation than previously appreciated.