Neurosurgery
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Multiple cerebral cavernous malformations (mCCMs) are known as potentially epileptogenic lesions. Treatment might be multimodal. Management of patients with mCCMs and epilepsy is challenging. ⋯ After initial diagnosis of epilepsy associated to mCCMs, a primary conservative approach is reasonable. Surgical treatment can be successful in a large fraction of cases with drug-resistant epilepsy where an epileptogenic lesion is identified. Cases where surgery is not undertaken are likely to remain intractable.
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The science of medicine has undergone rapid advancement and expansion as a result of significant technological innovations, and this has affected the training of neurosurgical residents. ⋯ The Congress of Neurological Surgeons has successfully incorporated simulation into an educational curriculum with both didactic and technical components. This appears to be a powerful educational tool, and its uses are being further expanded.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Surgical rehearsal platform: potential uses in microsurgery.
Surgical training has remained remarkably similar in many respects since the early days of halstedian training. Neurosurgery is a demanding field that requires extensive cognitive, perceptive, and technical training. Surgical simulation is a promising approach to facilitate acquiring proficiency in neurosurgical procedures. ⋯ The use of simulator technology for microsurgery is in its infancy. This article describes a novel simulator technology developed by Surgical Theater LLC (http://www.surgicaltheater.net/home.html) called the Selman Surgical Rehearsal Platform. The platform shows promise for use in intracranial microvascular procedures, which require experience that is becoming increasingly limited for trainees who have to become proficient in more procedures in much less time than ever before.
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Extensive death of sensory neurons after nerve trauma depletes the number of regenerating neurons, contributing to inadequate cutaneous innervation density and poor sensory recovery. Experimentally proven neuroprotective neoadjuvant drugs require noninvasive in vivo measures of neuron death to permit clinical trials. In animal models of nerve transection, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) proved a valid tool for quantifying sensory neuron loss within dorsal root ganglia (DRG) by measuring consequent proportional shrinkage of respective ganglia. ⋯ MRI provides noninvasive in vivo assessment of DRG volume as a proxy clinical measure of sensory neuron death. The significant decrease found after unrepaired nerve injury provides indirect clinical evidence of axotomy-induced neuronal death. This loss was less after nerve repair, indicating a neuroprotective benefit of early repair. Volumetric MRI has potential diagnostic applications and is a quantitative tool for clinical trials of neuroprotective therapies.