Neurosurgery
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We describe the clinical application and utility of high-resolution magnetic resonance neurography (MRN) techniques to image the normal fascicular structure of peripheral nerves and its distortion by mass lesions or trauma in the lower extremity. ⋯ MRN proved useful in the preoperative evaluation and planning of surgery in patients with peripheral nerve lesions.
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The history of spinal biomechanics has its origins in antiquity. The Edwin Smith surgical papyrus, an Egyptian document written in the 17th century BC, described the difference between cervical sprain, fracture, and fracture-dislocation. By the time of Hippocrates (4th century BC), physical means such as traction or local pressure were being used to correct spinal deformities but the treatments were based on only a rudimentary knowledge of spinal biomechanics. ⋯ By the 1960s, a two-column model of the spine was proposed by Holdsworth. The modern concept of Denis' three-column model of the spine is supported by more sophisticated testing of cadaver spines in modern biomechanical laboratories. The modern explosion of spinal instrumentation stems from a deeper understanding of the load-bearing structures of the spinal column.
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Cranioplasty using acrylic is a common procedure in patients with cranial defects secondary to trauma, infection, or tumor. The limitations of this technique include poor adherence of the acrylic to surrounding bone and difficulty in achieving a proper cosmetic contour in complicated cranial defects, especially those involving the orbital rim. The authors have been continually developing techniques of cranioplasty. ⋯ All patients achieved excellent cosmetic results with no complications. This technique allows contour of the repair site while the acrylic is curing and provides a more resilient resulting prosthesis.
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Comparative Study
Functional magnetic resonance imaging mapping of the motor cortex in patients with cerebral tumors.
The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to map cerebral functions in patients with frontal or parietal tumors. ⋯ FMRI of tactile, motor, and language tasks is feasible in patients with cerebral tumors. FMRI shows promise as a means of determining the risk of a postoperative motor deficit from surgical resection of frontal or parietal tumors.
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ANTON VON EISELSBERG was the first to resect a cerebral tumor at the First Surgical Clinic at the General Hospital in Vienna in 1904. He successfully removed a cerebral glioma, the first of no fewer than 15,000 tumors operated on at that hospital to date. von Eiselsberg and his successors, Egon Ranzi and Leopold Schönbauer, as heads of the First Surgical Clinic, devoted themselves intensively to brain surgery, and neurosurgery developed to be an integral part of Viennese surgery. During the first decades, a prominent neurologist, Otto Marburg, and a world-famous anatomist, Julius Tandler, were members of the neurosurgical operating team. ⋯ This again changed in 1978 under the new head of the department, Wolfgang Koos, who regarded the neurosciences as the basis for neurosurgical training as well as neurosurgical activity. The reorganization of the neurosurgical institution coincided with the construction of a large modern building with state-of-the-art equipment for microneurosurgery, radiosurgery (gamma knife), neurodiagnostics, laboratories, etc. Many details of the construction plans, the equipment, and the organization of the department have their roots in the years that the present head of the department spent in the United States; this is also the reason for the close connection and cooperation of Vienna neurosurgery with many neurosurgeons in the United States.