Dolichoectatic cervical arteries (carotid and vertebral arteries) heralded by recurrent cerebral ischemia: Case illustration

A case of a 61-year-old man with recurrent episodes of cerebral transient ischemic attacks is reported. The patient had a history of cigarette smoking, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes mellitus. Before these episodes, the patient had no clinical symptoms and signs of cerebral pathology. Brain magnetic resonance imaging revealed microvascular lesions in the white matter of the cerebral hemispheres. Digital subtraction arteriogram revealed the aortic arch dolichoic shape and course of the great vessels originating from it, whereas there were no pathological findings from the intracranial vessels. This study describes a case of the existence of distal dolichoectasia of the vertebral and carotid arteries without intracranial dolichoectasia. It seems that such a type of dolichoectasia does not influence the performance status of a patient, but when a critical point is crossed, patients suffer from cerebrovascular disease. © 2008 Sage Publications

Thecaloscopy through sacral bone approaches, cadaver study: Further anatomic landmarks

Endoscopy of the spinal canal, for interventional studies, diagnosis and therapy, is a scientific topic that has attracted the interest of neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists and orthopedic surgeons for the past twenty years. Endoscopy of the thecal sac was assumed to be less important than endoscopy of the ventricular system by neurosurgeons. Nevertheless, during the last years it has attained increasing scientific interest, firstly because of the introduction of small diameter flexible endoscopes and secondly due to the growing interest for minimal invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in modern neurosurgery. Until now thecaloscopy was performed by the ISGT (international Study Group for Thecaloscopy) using co-axial downward orientated approaches. We have examined transsacral approaches to facilitate the navigation of flexible scopes in the lumbosacral subarachnoid space, and thus we now introduce further recognizable endoscopic anatomic landmarks