World Neurosurg
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Recent decades have seen a rapid expansion of involvement of medical students in biomedical research during medical school training. Research within medical school has been shown to influence medical students with regard to medical knowledge, career development, and residency specialty choice. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of neurosurgery medical student research grants on neurosurgery residency choice and provide an insight on the demographics of grant awardees. ⋯ Neurosurgery grants for medical students are highly successful in producing future neurosurgeons with >50% of grant recipients matched into neurosurgery. Women are underrepresented in neurosurgery grants and neurosurgery residency programs. This situation can be improved by providing insight about the field early in medical school, perhaps through increased use of neurosurgery medical student grants.
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Cerebellar stroke causes major morbidity in the aging population. Guidelines from the American Stroke Association recommend emergent decompression in patients who have brainstem compression, hydrocephalus, or clinical deterioration. The objective of this study was to determine 30-day and 1-year mortality rates in patients >60 years old undergoing emergent posterior fossa decompression. ⋯ Increasing age and smaller craniectomy size were significantly associated with mortality in patients undergoing emergent posterior fossa decompression. Among patients ≥80 years old, one-quarter were dead within 1 month of the operation, and more than two-thirds were dead within 1 year.
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It is important to recognize the incidence and risk factors for ischemic complications after surgical revascularization for moyamoya disease (MMD). However, most studies focus on pediatric MMD or pediatric and adult MMD. Our study identified the incidence and risk factors of newly developed cerebral infarction after surgical revascularization for adult MMD. ⋯ Our findings demonstrate that newly developed, silent cerebral infarction developed more frequently than symptomatic cerebral infarction in adult patients. Cerebral infarction as initial presentation, frequent TIA before surgery, and PCA involvement were also independent risk factors for newly developed cerebral infarction after surgical revascularization for adult MMD.
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The anterior lumbar spine approach has gained in popularity in recent years, but the associated access-related complications for obese patients have not been clearly established. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between obesity or overweight and the safety of the anterior lumbar spine approach. ⋯ Because BMI does not seem to increase the overall risk of complications, the anterior lumbar spine approach should be considered in obese or overweight patients, as in nonoverweight patients.
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Secretory meningioma (SM) is a rare histologic subtype known to cause disproportional peritumoral brain edema. Although meningiomas are defined by slow growth and mostly manifest with benign clinical symptoms, SMs can cause life-threatening deterioration. The aim of this study was to characterize the potential pitfalls in treatment of SMs by illustrating their characteristic clinical features. ⋯ Our results illustrate the complicated clinical course of this rare histologic meningioma subtype. The increased frequency of seizures may enable raised awareness of clinicians for potential complications and treatment adjustments perioperatively early at clinical admission.