World Neurosurg
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This study critically evaluates the long-term results of standalone anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF), without use of rhBMP-2, as a therapeutic option for symptomatic patients with degenerative disc disease (DDD). Furthermore, this study intends to identify predictive parameters for anterior lumbar interbody fusion outcome. ⋯ The ALIF technique is a durable treatment option for patients with DDD. This study suggests different predictive parameters for treatment outcome.
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Case Reports
Spontaneous Resolution of Cerebral Pial Arteriovenous Fistula following Angiography: Report of two cases.
Cerebral pial arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is a rare disorder, and its natural course is uncertain. The present article reports 2 rare cases of pial AVF that underwent spontaneous cure after diagnostic cerebral angiogram. ⋯ It is possible that pial AVF is a cause of headache and neurologic symptoms in association with focal hyperperfusion. Diagnostic cerebral angiography should be performed to make a definite diagnosis; after this, pial AVF sometimes disappears.
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Percutaneous endoscopic transforaminal lumbar discectomy (PETLD) can be performed by using foraminal, intervertebral, and suprapedicular routes. The aim of this study was to assess clinical results of three different routes of PETLD. ⋯ All 3 routes of PETLD resulted in good to excellent clinical results. Nevertheless, the postoperative VAS score was higher for the foraminal route than for the intervertebral and suprapedicular routes, probably not because of the surgery but because of the neurologic characteristics of the disk location. The surgeon should consider this problem to alleviate pain postoperatively and counsel to patient well before surgery.
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Recently, we reported a tendency toward spontaneous hemorrhage in both the preoperative and postoperative periods in patients with intracranial epidermoid cyst (EC). According to our experience, this tendency for spontaneous hemorrhage was partly caused by the pathologic blood vessels adjacent to the EC. This study was designed to testify this hypothesis. ⋯ Our findings provide strong evidence for the hypothesis that intracystic or pericystic vascular degeneration or destruction accounts for the spontaneous hemorrhage tendency before and after surgical resection of ECs.
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In hydrocephalus shunt surgery, a peritoneal catheter is traditionally inserted with laparotomy incision. The abdominal incision length will not be shorter than 3 cm in most cases. A longer incision has to be made in obese patients. The lateral position in lumboperitoneal shunt (LPS) surgery also increases the difficulty of laparotomy. This report introduces a simple technique of pneumoperitoneal puncture for peritoneal catheter placement in LPS surgery. ⋯ The pneumoperitoneal puncture technique has proven, in our experience, to be a minimally invasive, simple, and reliable method in a peritoneal catheter placement procedure. This technique, which needs to be assessed further by larger case series, may be considered a new method of choice for peritoneal catheter placement in LPS surgery.