Spectrum of Skull Lesions in Pediatric Population: A Single Institutional Experience

Background: Pediatric skull lesions are rare. Here, a single institutional experience dealing with such lesions is presented.Methods: A retrospective review of 18 consecutive pediatric patients was done, who were treated for a variety of skull lesions at Department of Neurosurgery, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh from 2010 to 2015. The clinical and pathological features, diagnosis, management and outcome were noted and analyzed.Results: In this study, eighteen skull lesions were identified in 10 male (55%) and 8 female (44%) patients, with a mean age at diagnosis of 9.5 years. These lesions were usually benign and most commonly presented as a painless mass (n = 11). Fronto-orbital (n = 6) was the most frequent site encountered in this study followed by temporo-parietal (n = 3) and parieto-occipital area (n = 2). Gross total resection achieved in 15 patients (83.3%) and reconstruction of skull defect was possible in 11 (61.1%) of them. Excluding the malignant lesions, no recurrence was found in this study cohort for a mean follow up time of 2.8 years.Conclusions: Majority of the skull lesions in children are benign. Pre-operative angiography and embolization is helpful to reduce the intraoperative blood loss. Gross total resection with reconstruction is the treatment of choice. Recurrence is uncommon after gross total resection

Development of Indirect Spectrophotometric Method for Quantification of Cephalexin in Pure Form and Commercial Formulation Using Complexation Reaction

A simple, accurate and indirect spectrophotometric method was developed for the quantification of cephalexin in pure form and pharmaceutical products using complexation reaction. The developed method is based on the oxidation of the cephalexin with Fe3+ in acidic medium. Then 1, 10-phenanthroline reacts with Fe2+ and a red colored complex was formed. The absorbance of the complex was measured at 510 nm by spectrophotometer. Different experimental parameters affecting the complexation reactions were studied and optimized. Beer’s law was obeyed in the concentration range 0.4 -10 µgmL-1 with a good correlation of 0.992. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were found to be 0.065 µgmL-1 and 0.218 µgmL-1, respectively. The method have good reproducibility with a relative standard deviation of 6.26 % (n = 6). The method was successfully applied for the determination of cephalexin in bulk powder and commercial formulation. Percent recoveries were found to range from 95.47 to 103.87 % for the pure form and 98.62 to 103.35 % for commercial formulations