World Neurosurg
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Observational Study
Neurosurgery in Saudi Arabia: Navigating Through Future Pathways and Students' Perspectives.
Neurosurgery is a surgical discipline that demands comprehensive knowledge in other specialties. It is regarded as one of the most competitive specialties. However, there is a new trend toward considering life-style friendly specialties. Therefore, this study aims to assess the neurosurgery perception and identify potential factors influencing such attitudes. ⋯ This study emphasizes how gender and academic year affect choosing neurosurgery as a career but notes limitations like self-reporting bias and a single-institution scope, which may affect generalizability. Future research might consider national summer training programs to engage more students in neurosurgery.
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Review
Intracranial phosphaturic mesenchymal tumors: A systematic literature review of a rare entity.
Phosphaturic Mesenchymal Tumors (PMTs) are rare mesenchymal neoplasms known for producing Tumor-induced Osteomalacia (TIO). TIO is an uncommon paraneoplastic syndrome characterized by radiographic evidence of inadequate bone mineralization and analytical abnormalites. ⋯ Skull base PMTs with intracranial extension are extremely rare tumors. Most patients are middle-aged adults with a PMT predominantly located in anterior cranial fossa. Surgery is the current treatment of choice with optimal outcome at 1-year follow-up, although recurrence could be present in almost 25% of the cases.
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Leptomeningeal disease (LMD) is a devastating sequela of many cancers, with an extremely poor prognosis. Barriers to improving outcomes are related to the inability of many traditional therapies to effectively reach the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) space within the central nervous system. ⋯ In this review, we highlight the principles of liquorpheresis and detail how LMD can be amenable to this treatment. Further, we summarize the current in vitro and in vivo evidence supporting liquorpheresis as a feasible method to treat LMD and other central nervous system diseases as well as describe its conceivable limitations.