World Neurosurg
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Minimally invasive techniques have been developed to provide access to the disc with better visualization while causing less muscle trauma and its consequences. This study was aimed at evaluating the clinical outcomes and complications of the fully endoscopic lumbar discectomy interlaminar approach in a large number of patients. ⋯ Fully endoscopic interlaminar lumbar discectomy is a safe, effective option for treating lumbar disc herniation, with a long recurrence-free recovery.
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Patients with medically intractable epilepsy often undergo sequential surgeries and are therefore exposed to an elevated risk for infection, resulting in unanticipated returns to the operating room. The goal of our study was to determine whether use of an osteoplastic bone flap technique would reduce the infection rate in these patients. ⋯ Osteoplastic bone flaps markedly decreased the risk of craniotomy infections compared with free flaps in patients undergoing sequential surgeries. This decrease is offset, however, by an increase in intracranial hematoma requiring return to the operating room. Infection appeared to be a more significant complication as it was associated with increased duration of treatment. The osteoplastic technique is especially appealing in those patients likely to undergo multiple surgeries in short succession.
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Glioma is the most frequent primary brain tumor. Immunotherapy is one of the most promising therapeutic approaches for gliomas. T cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain-3 can induce the malignancy of gliomas. The function of galectin-9 (GAL-9), as one of the ligands of T cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain-3, in glioma has remained elusive. The aim of this study was to characterize the expression of GAL-9 in patients with glioma. ⋯ Our results highlight the pivotal role of GAL-9 in regulation of immune suppressive features of gliomas and indicate that GAL-9 is a promising target for cancer immunotherapy and may lead to development of further therapies.
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Venous collaterals form because of occlusion of the superior sagittal sinus (SSS), thus preserving venous drainage. Previous studies have focused on the evaluation and protection of sinuses and cortical veins and have neglected the collaterals between the SSS and deep venous system, which are important for surgical planning. We aimed to study the venous compensatory patterns inside and on both sides of the cerebral falx (parafalx) in patients with meningioma invading the SSS. ⋯ In meningiomas invading the SSS, especially with complete posterior SSS occlusion, the parafalcine collateral veins and falcine sinus should be evaluated preoperatively to avoid iatrogenic injury.
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During functional-based resection under awake conditions of a left frontal isocitrate dehydrogenase-wildtype glioblastoma, the initial intralesional debulking performed to alleviate mass effect unmasked the right hemibody negative motor networks that were identified on the neocortex by direct electric stimulation. As compared with preoperative evaluation, the 3-month postoperative functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed unmasked cortical clusters for the right hemibody that were absent preoperatively using the same functional MRI parameters; language clusters were also better seen. The glioma-induced mass effect can mask eloquent brain areas, and surgical decompression can unmask intraoperatively eloquent brain areas.