Journal of Neurosurgical Sciences

"The only history is a mere question of one's struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander to do," said David H. Lawrence. In this historical vignette, we look at the lives of certain western giants of neuroanatomy from the past. To understand the origin of today's advancements and successes in neurosurgery, a strong foothold on the path taken by anatomical greats is necessary. What curiosity inspired them to search the meaning of the human nervous system? Learning this from the paths of Herophilus, Galen, Franciscus Sylvius, Thomas Willis, Alexander Monro secundus, Luigi Rolando, François Magendie, and Martin Rathke, will propel us to create a better future for our successors...

BACKGROUND: Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) is a well-established surgical approach in the treatment of degenerative pathology, trauma, infection, and neoplasia of the spine. This study sought to assess the usefulness of frailty as a predictor of non-home discharge (NHD) for patients who undergo the procedure. METHODS: Patient cases were extracted from the American College of Surgeons's National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database from 2012 to 2020...

BACKGROUND: This pilot study in post-stroke patients evaluated the effects of supplementation with Pycnogenol® on alterations in cognitive functions (COFU) over a period of 6 months, starting 4 weeks after the stroke. METHODS: The effects of supplementation - possibly acting on residual brain edema, on global cognitive function, attention and on mental performance - were studied. A control group used standard management (SM) and the other group added Pycnogenol® , 150 mg daily to SM...

INTRODUCTION: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a modern neuromodulation technique extensively proven to be an effective modality for treatment of chronic neuropathic pain. It has been mainly studied for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS) and recent data almost uniformly establishes its statistically significant positive therapeutic results. It has also been compared with other available treatment modalities across various studies. However, long term data on maintenance of its efficacious potential remains less explored...

INTRODUCTION: We sought to evaluate a potential association between contact vs. non-contact sport participation and long-term neurologic outcomes and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: PubMed/Embase/PsycINFO/CINAHL databases were queried for studies between 1950-2020 with contact and non-contact sports, longitudinal assessment >10 years, and long-term neurologic outcomes in four-domains: I) clinical diagnosis; II) CTE neuropathology; III) neurocognition; and IV) neuroimaging...

BACKGROUND: Pituitary adenomas and craniopharyngiomas are the most common lesions of the sellar region. These tumors are responsible for invasion or compression of crucial neurovascular structures. The involvement of the pituitary stalk warrants high rates of both pre- and post- operative diabetes insipidus. The aim of our study was to assess the accuracy of machine learning analysis from preoperative MRI of pituitary adenomas and craniopharyngiomas for the prediction of DI occurrence...

ChatGPT, a conversational artificial intelligence model based on the generative pre-trained transformer GPT architecture, has garnered widespread attention due to its user-friendly nature and diverse capabilities. This technology enables users of all backgrounds to effortlessly engage in human-like conversations and receive coherent and intelligible responses. Beyond casual interactions, ChatGPT offers compelling prospects for scientific research, facilitating tasks like literature review and content summarization, ultimately expediting and enhancing the academic writing process...

BACKGROUND: This paper reports the results of the treatment of our first 200 cases of lumbar disc herniation and foraminal stenosis using full-endoscopic transforaminal lumbar discectomy (FETLD). We analyzed outcomes and radiological parameters to overcome failure and inappropriate indications and also highlighted the red flags for surgeons coming to this field as well as the pathways to success. METHODS: Data on endoscopic procedures were retrospectively analyzed between October 2018 and March 2023...

BACKGROUND: Surpass Evolve Flow Diverter (SE-FD; Stryker Neurovascular, Kalamazoo, MI, USA) was launched in 2019 as a new generation FD of Surpass Streamline. The aim of this study was to report the effectiveness and safety of SE-FD insertion for unruptured intracranial aneurysm at one-year follow-up. METHODS: Between November 2019 and October 2021, a total of 106 patients with 108 aneurysms were treated with FD in single institution. Of these, SE-FD insertion was performed in 40 patients with 41 aneurysms...

BACKGROUND: Treatment-related changes still represent a diagnostic challenge in the management of patients with suspect of recurrent glioblastoma. The specificity of conventional MRI in detecting recurrence remains limited. Brain PET imaging provides information on tumor metabolism and can contribute to improving the diagnostic accuracy of cerebral neoplasms. We performed a retrospective analysis to evaluate the clinical value of O-(2-18 F-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (18 F-FET) PET in the diagnosis of glioblastoma recurrence...

INTRODUCTION: Adjacent segment degeneration is among the most recognized long-term complications of lumbar surgery for degenerative spine pathologies with a relevant impact in spine surgical and clinical practice. It is reported a incidence of clinical adjacent segment disease between 5-30% of patients undergoing spinal fusion. We aimed to evaluate the main clinical and surgical risk factors for developing adjacent segment disease. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the pertinent literature was performed, according to PRISMA and PICO guidelines, focusing on clinical and radiological adjacent segment disease...

BACKGROUND: Restoring lumbar lordosis is one of the main goals in lumbar spinal fusion surgery. The Mazor X-AlignTM software allows for the prediction of postoperative segmental lumbar lordosis based on preoperative imaging. There is limited data on the accuracy of this preoperative prediction, especially in patients undergoing short segment lumbar fusion. The objective of our study was to determine the accuracy of predicted postoperative segmental lumbar lordosis using the Mazor X-AlignTM software in patients requiring short segmental fusion...

BACKGROUND: Clinicians are well-versed in the classical symptoms of low vs. high intracranial pressure (ICP). However, symptoms may not be as predictable of ICP state in shunted patients with chronic symptoms. In this study, we assess whether clinicians can predict high vs. low ICP state in chronically symptomatic shunted patients without any diagnostic clues. METHODS: A detailed retrospective analysis was performed on 259 patients undergoing ICP monitoring. A total of 17 patients who had a ventriculoperitoneal shunt were identified, with a suspected chronic abnormal ICP state based only on clinical symptoms...

BACKGROUND: Cerebral metastasis (CM) is the most common malignancy affecting the brain. Individualized treatment of CM still represents a challenge for neuro-oncological teams: in patient eligible for surgery, complete tumor removal is the most relevant predictor of overall survival (OS) and neurological outcome. The development of surgical microscopes harboring specific filter able to elicit the fluorescent response from sodium fluorescein (SF) has facilitated fluorescein-guided microsurgery and the identification of pathological tumor tissue, especially at the tumor margins...

BACKGROUND: Over the past 10 years, intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) has been widely performed during surgery for treating spondylotic cervical myelopathy. Our study considers the predictive value of IONM during laminoplasty, regarding, first, the adequacy of spinal cord decompression and, second, the long-term neuro-functional outcome. METHODS: We considered 38 patients with the diagnosis of degenerative cervical myelopathy who underwent an open-door laminoplasty...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

INTRODUCTION: Baseline frailty status has been utilized to predict a wide range of outcomes and guide preoperative decision making in neurosurgery. This systematic review aims to analyze existing literature on the utilization of frailty as a predictor of neurosurgical outcomes. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: We conducted a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines. Studies that utilized baseline frailty status to predict outcomes after a neurosurgical intervention were included in this systematic review...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.