Neurosurgery
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Skull base osteosarcomas are aggressive neoplasms characterized by bony invasion and extracompartmental/extra-osseous soft tissue extension that pose obstacles to achieving complete resection. Management is further complicated by the paucity of data regarding the efficacy of surgery within the treatment paradigm. ⋯ Skull base osteosarcomas present management challenges in which both local and systemic disease progression is the cause of mortality. Achieving R0 resections significantly improves PFS and DSS in treatment-naïve patients within multimodality treatment paradigms. Salvage surgery may benefit in patients after failing previous radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Further work is needed to determine optimal treatment strategies. These data represent the largest series reported to date.
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Posterior circulation aneurysms are often associated with a higher risk of rupture and compressive symptoms compared to their anterior circulation counterpart. Due to high morbidity and mortality associated with microsurgical treatment of those aneurysms, endovascular therapy gained ascendance as the preferred method of treatment. ⋯ While treatment of saccular and dissecting aneurysms is often associated with comparatively good outcomes, fusiform and dolichoectatic aneurysms should be carefully selected prior to treatment to avoid devastating thromboembolic complications. Occlusion of covered posterior circulation branches showed no correlation with ischemic complications, and appropriate antiplatelet regimen and switching Clopidogrel nonresponders to different antiplatelet agents were associated with lower complication rates following flow diversion of posterior circulation aneurysms.
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Osteoblastoma (OBL) in the mobile spine is a benign tumor with aggressive potential. There is not much published information on OBL of the mobile spine as a result of rarity of the disease. There are controversies over the aggressive subtype and prognostic factors of the condition. ⋯ St.3 or EO lesions seem to be more aggressive than St.2 or conventional osteoblastomas, but St.3 and EO should be considered simultaneously in predicting the aggressiveness of the lesion and the risk of recurrence. Total spondylectomy performed either by en bloc or piecemeal could significantly reduce recurrence of OBLs in the mobile spine.
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Neurosciences intensive care units (NICUs) provide institutional centers for specialized care. Despite a demonstrable reduction in morbidity and mortality, NICUs may experience significant capacity strain with resulting supraoptimal utilization and diseconomies of scale. We present an implementation study in the recognition and management of capacity strain within a large NICU in the United States. Excessive resource demand in an NICU creates significant operational issues. ⋯ Capacity strain is a significant issue for hospital units. Reducing capacity strain can increase unit efficiency, improve resource utilization, and augment service-line throughput. RBPP implementation resulted in a significant improvement in service-line operations, regional access to care, and resource efficiency, with minimal externalities at the institutional level.
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Use of large databases such as the American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) has become increasingly common in neurosurgical research. ⋯ While we observed an overall satisfactory reporting of methodology, most studies lacked mention of potential sources of bias, data cleaning methods, supplemental information, and external validity. Given the pervasive role of national databases and registries for research and health care policy, the surgical community needs to ensure the credibility and quality of such studies that ultimately aim to improve the value of surgical care delivery to patients.