World Neurosurg
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Case Reports
Microvascular Decompression through Cyanoacrylate Glue-Coated Teflon Sling Transposition Technique.
Vertebral artery dolichoectasia may produce a variety of clinical scenarios depending on the level of compression of several nervous structures along its course. Despite the fact that the pathophysiology is not fully clarified, it would seem that this pathologic elongation and dilation of the artery are acquired and determined by a thinning of the internal elastic lamina exposed to chronic arterial hypertension or as a result of degeneration and atherosclerosis of the arterial wall with age. When treatment is indicated, several techniques to relieve compression have been proposed, but they are usually challenging and nonstandardized. ⋯ The patient gave written consent for participating in the procedure, surgical video, and publication of her images. Unfortunately, we did not take the picture of patient positioning for this specific case. For this reason, in order to better illustrate this surgical phase, we used the picture of another patient, who expressed her consent for publication and was operated on for a microvascular decompression with the same position as the one used for the patient described in this paper.
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Minimally invasive transcanal transpromontorial endoscopic approaches to the internal auditory canal sacrifice the cochlea. Two hearing-preserving approaches, the exclusively endoscopic transcanal infracochlear approach and the endoscope-assisted transmastoid retrolabyrinthine approach, have been controversially discussed in the literature. In this study, we examine the feasibility of these 2 approaches by means of three-dimensional surface models, a population-based analysis of the available surgical space, and dissections in human whole-head specimens. ⋯ This study shows that in a high percentage of the measured cohort, the access windows are sufficiently large for endoscopic approaches to the internal auditory canal. With appropriate instrumentation, these hearing-preserving minimally invasive approaches may evolve into alternatives to surgical treatment.
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To compare location and amount of unremoved intervertebral disc between extreme lateral lumbar interbody fusion (XLIF) and oblique lateral lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF). ⋯ Our study found a greater area of unremoved disc in OLIF compared with XLIF. The common locations were in the contralateral side of the surgical approach-right anterior in OLIF, and right posterior in XLIF. The greater area of the unremoved disc in the anterior zone after OLIF due to oblique corridor to disc space may cause cage malposition. Meticulous disc removal should be performed, especially in OLIF, to prevent complications.
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Granular cell tumors are rare vascular neoplastic lesions of the sellar and suprasellar region that usually arise from the pituitary stalk but can originate as low as the posterior pituitary or as high as the tuber cinereum.1 Complete resection, although ideal, can yield high rates of endocrine or visual morbidity.1,2 On headache workup, a 66-year-old woman was found to have a 1.2 × 1.1 × 1.3-cm contrast-enhancing lesion in the anterior-inferior third ventricle, posterior to the infundibulum. Endocrine testing was unremarkable, and a lumbar puncture was nondiagnostic. An open biopsy and possible resection were selected by the patient over short-interval imaging. ⋯ Postoperatively, the patient had transient diabetes insipidus, with preserved vision and normal endocrine function on follow-up. The trans-lamina terminalis approach can be used for safe resection of anterior third ventricular tumors. Preservation of the floor and walls of the third ventricle is critical to avoid morbidity.
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Several microsurgical techniques are available for the decompression of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS). More recently, a spinous process-splitting laminectomy (SPSL) technique was introduced, with the premise of diminishing paraspinal muscle damage. This study aims to compare the neurologic and functional outcomes, as well as the differences in early postoperative pain and analgesic use during hospitalization after conventional decompression (CD) versus SPSL surgery for LSS. ⋯ Patients treated with SPSL technique for LSS showed an equivalent favorable functional outcome compared to CD. However, SPSL patients showed significantly less subacute postoperative pain while using equal amounts or fewer analgesics postoperatively.