Retrospective analysis of reoperation rate after standard lumbar discectomy and microdiscectomy - single center experience

Discectomy is a surgical procedure in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH) if sciatica or neurological deficits occur and still persist after a course of conservative therapy. Standard discectomy (SD) and microdiscectomy (MD) are still equal in curent clinical practice. Many retrospective and prospective studies have shown that there is no clinically significant difference in the functional outcome after two treatment modalities. The aim of our study was to determine whether there are differences in the incidence of reoperation after performing SD and MD. The research included 545 patients with average period of postoperative follow-up of approximately 5.75 years. Standard discectomy was performed in 393 patients (72.11%), and microdiscectomy in 152 (27.8%) patients. The total number of reoperated patients was 37/545, or 6.78%. In the SD group, the number of reoperated patients was 33/393 (8.39%) and in the MD group 4/152 or 2.63%. Statistically significant difference (p <0.05) was recorded in favor of the MD group. Although it has been proven that both SD and MD give good endpoints of treatment and similar functional recovery, the advantage is given to microdiscectomy due to statistically significantly lower rates of recurrent herniation. This result is attributed to better visualization of neural structures and pathological substrates, as well as their mutual relationship

Evaluation of safety and successfulness of the coil embolization of intracranial aneurysms

© 2019, University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Science. All rights reserved. Intracranial aneurisms are ongoing problem for neurosurgeons and especially for interventional neuroradiologists due to its morbidity and mortality. The method of choice for treatment of the unruptured and ruptured intracranial aneurysms is endovascular coiling on account of its minimal invasiveness and high effectiveness. The aim of our study was to evaluate the safety and successfulness of endovascular coiling procedure in unruptured and ruptured intracranial aneurysms. Our study was designed as case series and consisted of patients older than 18 years, who underwent endovascular coiling of unruptured and ruptured intracranial aneurysms and follow-up examination 6 months after the interventional procedure. The procedures were performed from December 2010 to December 2016, by experienced interventional neuroradilogists (more than 400 performed embolizations each) at the Department for Interventional Neuroradiology, Clinical Center Kragujevac, Serbia. There were 681 patients (average age 47.5 ± 11.2 years) treated with endovascular coiling, out of them 324 (234 females, 90 males) had unruptured intracranial aneurysm and 357 (138 females, 219 males) had ruptured intracranial aneurysm. In our series, total complication rate was 11.71 %. Analysis of the results after first endovascular procedure has shown that complete aneurysm occlusion was accomplished in 546 patients (80.3%), near-complete in 81 patients (11.8%), and incomplete in 54 patients (7.9 %). Our results were satisfying regarding the procedure’s success, safety, outcomes and study material. However, further technical development of the materials and constant training of the interventional radiologists, are a necessity in order to improve treatment outcomes and patients’ benefit

Tanycytic Ependymoma of the Filum Terminale Region; a Case Report

Tanycytic ependymoma is a very rare spindle-cell variant of ependymoma derived from tanycytes, which are part of the primitive nervous system. This paper is presenting 48-year old woman who presented with low back and right-sided leg pain of moderate intensity. MRI showed spinal intradural tumor at the level of the L1 vertebral body. Right-sided L1 hemilaminectomy and en bloc tumor resection were performed. Neuroradiological and intraoperative diagnosis of schwannoma was revised to tanycytic ependymoma after careful immunohistochemical analysis. Six months post-operativly, MRI did not show tumor recurrence. Tanycytic ependymoma at the region of filum terminale is extremely uncommon and only three cases have been described in the literature. The low incidence of this tumor and atypical histological image, which is distinct from the typical features of commonly encountered ependymomas, can present a challenge in terms of making an accurate diagnosis. Awareness of this transitional form of ependymoma among neurosurgeons and pathologists may avoid incorrect surgical approaches and postoperative treatment course

Tanycytic ependymoma of the filum terminale region; a case report

© 2018, University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Science. All rights reserved. Tanycytic ependymoma is a very rare spindle-cell variant of ependymoma derived from tanycytes, which are part of the primitive nervous system. This paper is presenting 48-year old woman who presented with low back and right-sided leg pain of moderate intensity. MRI showed spinal in-tradural tumor at the level of the L1 vertebral body. Right-sided L1 hemilaminectomy and en bloc tumor resection were performed. Neuroradiological and intraoperative diagnosis of schwannoma was revised to tanycytic ependymoma after careful immunohistochemical analysis. Six months post-operativly, MRI did not show tumor recurrence. Tanycytic ependymoma at the region of filum terminale is extremely uncommon and only three cases have been described in the literature. The low incidence of this tumor and atypical histological image, which is distinct from the typical features of commonly encountered ependymomas, can present a challenge in terms of making an accurate diagnosis. Awareness of this transitional form of ependymoma among neurosurgeons and pathologists may avoid incorrect surgical approaches and postoperative treatment course

Standard lumbar discectomy versus microdiscectomy - Differences in clinical outcome and reoperation rate

Microdiscectomy (MD) is accepted nowadays as the operative method of choice for lumbar disc herniation, but it is not rare for neurosurgeons to opt for standard discectomy (SD), which does not entail the use of operating microscope. In our study, diff erences in disc herniation recurrence and clinical outcome of surgical treatment of lumbar disc herniation with and without the use of operating microscope were assessed. Our study included 167 patients undergoing lumbar disc surgery during a three-year period (SD, n=111 and MD, n=56). Clinical outcome assessments were recorded by patients via questionnaire forms filled out by patients at three time points. Operation duration, length of hospital stay and revision surgeries were also recorded. According to study results, after one-year follow up there was no statistically significant diff erence between the SD and MD groups in functional outcome. However, we recorded a statistically significant diff erence in leg pain reduction in favor of the MD group. According to the frequency of reoperations with the mean follow up period of 33.4 months, there was a statistically significant diff erence in favor of the MD group (SD 6.3% vs. MD 3.2%). There appears to be no particular advantage of either technique in terms of functional outcome since both result in good overall outcome. However, we choose MD over SD because it includes significantly lower recurrent disc herniation rate and higher reduction of leg pain

Radiation exposure during neurointerventional procedures in modern angiographic systems: A single center experience

© 2020 Inst. Sci. inf., Univ. Defence in Belgrade. All rights reserved. Background/Aim. Interventional neuroradiology procedures expose patients to ionizing radiation. The aim of this study was to assess doses received by patients during interventional neuroradiology procedures and to establish dose range with an estimate of risk from adverse consequences of irradiation. Methods. Our study describes series of patients submitted to diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures at the Department of Interventional Neuroradiology, Clinical Center Kragujevac, Serbia, from December 1, 2014 to December 1, 2016. The following variables were considered for this study: Kerma-area product, air kerma and fluoroscopy exposure time; peak skin dose and effective dose calculated from the kerma-area product. Results. Median kerma-area product was 87.802 Gy cm2, 78.567 Gy cm2, 117.626 Gy cm2; effective dose was 12.731 mSv, 11.392 mSv, 17.056 mSv; peak skin dose was 0.456 Gy, 0.409 Gy, 0.612 Gy, and estimated brain dose was 254.62 mGy, 227.84 mGy, 341.12 mGy, for diagnostic, therapeutic and combined procedures, respectively. Conclusion. Interventional neuroradiology procedures show significant variability in radiation dose, due to patient constitution, radiologist expertise and equipment factors. Knowing the doses can have a great benefit for patients and medical and paramedical stff in terms of prevention of possible deterministic and stochastic effects of the radiation

True aneurysm of temporal superficial artery arise spontaneously: Case report

© 2019, University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Science. All rights reserved. Aneurysms of the temporal superficial artery (TSA) are very rare clinical entity. From 1861 to the present day, is described less than 200 cases. The most common cause of these aneurysms is so called blunt head trauma but there are described many cases of iatrogenic aneurysms, very rarely, aneurysms arise spontaneously. We report a case of 17-yearold patient with spontaneously formatting aneurysm of TSA. Three months prior to admission, he noticed the existence of tumefaction localized frontotemporal on the right side. MSCT angiography of blood vessels of the scalp showed an aneurysm on the frontal branch of TSA diameter of 15 mm. The aneurysm was resected with uneventful postoperative course. PH findings pointed to a true aneurysm. Treatment protocol for the aneurysms of the TSA include clinical monitoring, compression of the aneurysm, the injection of thrombin, endovascular treatment and surgical resection. Surgical resection has proven to be a safe and effective treatment modality and still is the method of choice

Unruptured distal anterior cerebral artery mirror aneurysms associated with ruptured middle cerebral artery aneurysm: A case report

© 2020 Inst. Sci. inf., Univ. Defence in Belgrade. All rights reserved. Introduction. Distal anterior cerebral artery (DACA) aneurysms, also known as pericallosal aneurysms are rare, while aneurysms in mirror position are extremely rare. These aneurysms have high tendency for rupture (PHASES score is always > 4). In more than a half of the patients with the DACA aneurysm rupture, imaging reveals intracerebral hematoma which is a predictor of poor outcome. Case report. A 49-year-old female patient was treated endovascularly in other institution, due to middle cerebral artery aneurysm (MCA) rupture, when the two small bilateral aneurysms at the distal segments of anterior cerebral artery (ACA) were revealed, left one measuring 4.5 mm and the right one measuring 6 mm in size, with the aneurysmal neck width of 3 mm and 4 mm, respectively. The decision was made by the interventional neuroradiologist only to treat the bleeding MCA aneurysm immediately. The patient was referred to our department six months later, and it was decided to perform microsurgical occlusion of the remaining DACA aneurysms. Unilateral inter-hemispheric approach was chosen to reach the distal ACAs and aneurysms at pericallosal-callosomarginal junction were clipped and completely excluded from the circulation. Conclusion. Management of DACA aneurysms is a surgical chellenge, even for experienced neurosurgeons. It is controversial whether these should be surgically clipped or coiled endovascularly, especially in cases like this one when a same-stage, endovascular coiling might look like a perfect approach. Surgical treatment should be prompt due to their tendency to early rupture. Careful evaluation for multiplicity is mandatory

Management of brachial plexus missile injuries

© 2018, Klinicka Bolnica Sestre Milosrdnice. All rights reserved. Missile injuries are among the most devastating injuries in general traumatology. Traumatic brachial plexus injuries are the most difficult injuries in peripheral nerve surgery, and most complicated to be surgically treated. Nevertheless, missile wounding is the second most common mechanism of brachial plexus injury. The aim was to evaluate functional recovery after surgical treatment of these injuries. Our series included 68 patients with 202 nerve lesions treated with 207 surgical procedures. Decision on the treatment modality (exploration, neurolysis, graft repair, or com-bination) was made upon intraoperative finding. Results were analyzed in 60 (88.2%) patients with 173 (85.6%) nerve lesions followed-up for two years. Functional recovery was evaluated according to functional priorities. Satisfactory functional recovery was achieved in 90.4% of cases with neurolysis and 85.7% of cases with nerve grafting. Insufficient functional recovery was verified in ulnar and radial nerve lesions after neurolysis, and in median and radial nerve lesions when graft repair was done. We conclude that the best time for surgery is between two and four months after injury, except for the gunshot wound associated with injury to the surrounding structures, which requires immediate surgical treatment. The results of neurolysis and nerve grafting were similar

Procedures performed during neurosurgery residency in Europe

International audienceAbstract Background In a previous article ( 10.1007/s00701-019-03888-3 ), preliminary results of a survey, aiming to shed light on the number of surgical procedures performed and assisted during neurosurgery residency in Europe were reported. We here present the final results and extend the analyses. Methods Board-certified neurosurgeons of European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS) member countries were asked to review their residency case logs and participate in a 31-question electronic survey (SurveyMonkey Inc., San Mateo, CA). The responses received between April 25, 2018, and April 25, 2020, were considered. We excluded responses that were incomplete, from non-EANS member countries, or from respondents that have not yet completed their residency. Results Of 430 responses, 168 were considered for analysis after checking in- and exclusion criteria. Survey responders had a mean age of 42.7 ± 8.8 years, and 88.8% were male. Responses mainly came from surgeons employed at university/teaching hospitals (85.1%) in Germany (22.0%), France (12.5%), the United Kingdom (UK; 8.3%), Switzerland (7.7%), and Greece (7.1%). Most responders graduated in the years between 2011 and 2019 (57.7%). Thirty-eight responders (22.6%) graduated before and 130 responders (77.4%) after the European WTD 2003/88/EC came into effect. The mean number of surgical procedures performed independently, supervised or assisted throughout residency was 540 (95% CI 424–657), 482 (95% CI 398–568), and 579 (95% CI 441–717), respectively. Detailed numbers for cranial, spinal, adult, and pediatric subgroups are presented in the article. There was an annual decrease of about 33 cases in total caseload between 1976 and 2019 (coeff. − 33, 95% CI − 62 to − 4, p = 0.025). Variables associated with lesser total caseload during residency were training abroad (1210 vs. 1747, p = 0.083) and female sex by trend (947 vs. 1671, p = 0.111), whereas case numbers were comparable across the EANS countries ( p = 0.443). Conclusion The final results of this survey largely confirm the previously reported numbers. They provide an opportunity for current trainees to compare their own case logs with. Again, we confirm a significant decline in surgical exposure during training between 1976 and 2019. In addition, the current analysis reveals that female sex and training abroad may be variables associated with lesser case numbers during residency