Neurosurgery
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Since the release of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery report in 2015, there has been an increase in the number of published papers on global neurosurgery, gaining widespread support from major neurosurgery journals. However, there remains no consensus on what may be considered part of global neurosurgery literature. ⋯ We introduce the 3Rs framework, advocating for global neurosurgery research that is rigorous, responsive, and responsible. This narrative review aims to guide young neurosurgeons and other researchers interested in the field, and to provide a framework through which global neurosurgery practitioners and advocates can evaluate previously accomplished work, paving the way toward neurosurgery that is timely, safe, and affordable to all.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Patient-Reported and Clinical Outcomes of Surgically Treated Patients With Symptomatic Spinal Metastases: Results From Epidemiology, Process, and Outcomes of Spine Oncology (EPOSO), a Prospective, Multi-Institutional and International Study.
The palliative impact of spine surgery for metastatic disease is evolving with improvements in surgical technique and multidisciplinary cancer care. The goal of this study was to prospectively evaluate long-term clinical outcomes including health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) measures, using spine cancer-specific patient-reported-outcome (PRO) measures, in patients with symptomatic spinal metastases who underwent surgical management. ⋯ Multi-institutional, prospective-outcomes data confirm that surgical decompression and/or stabilization provides meaningful and durable improvements in multiple HRQOL domains, including spine-specific outcomes based on the Spine Oncology Study Group Outcomes Questionnaire v2.0, for patients with metastatic spine disease.
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The underlying pathophysiological cause of moyamoya angiopathy (MMA) is still unclear. High-resolution vessel wall imaging has become a useful tool. The aim was to study vessel wall contrast-enhancement (VW-CE) as an imaging marker to predict disease progression in MMA. ⋯ VW-CE is a semiquantifiable marker for disease activity in patients with MMA and associated with disease progression and increased risk of stroke. VW-CE analysis can be routinely performed in patients with MMA to estimate the risk for disease progression and stroke.
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Preoperative embolization is used as an endovascular adjunct to surgical resection of meningiomas. However, there is no standardized system to assess the efficacy or extent of embolization during the embolization procedure. We sought to establish a purely angiographic grading system to facilitate consistent reporting of the outcome of meningioma embolization and to characterize the anatomic and other features of meningiomas that predict the degree of devascularization achieved through preoperative embolization. ⋯ Angiographic outcomes can be graded to indicate the extent of tumor embolization. This system may facilitate consistency of reported angiographic results. In addition, arterial feeders vary in a manner predicted by tumor location, and these patterns correlate with typical degrees of devascularization achieved in those tumor locations.
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Vein of Galen malformation (VOGM), the result of arteriovenous shunting between choroidal and/or subependymal arteries and the embryologic prosencephalic vein, is among the most severe cerebrovascular disorders of childhood. We hypothesized that in situ analysis of the VOGM lesion using endoluminal tissue sampling (ETS) is feasible and may advance our understanding of VOGM genetics, pathogenesis, and maintenance. ⋯ ETS may supplement investigations aimed at development of a molecular-genetic taxonomic classification scheme for VOGM. Moreover, results may eventually inform the selection of personalized pharmacologic or genetic therapies for VOGM and cerebrovascular disorders more broadly.