Factors influencing overall survival rates for patients with pineocytoma

Given its rarity, appropriate treatment for pineocytoma remains variable. As the literature primarily contains case reports or studies involving a small series of patients, prognostic factors following treatment of pineocytoma remain unclear. We therefore compiled a systematic review of the literature concerning post-treatment outcomes for pineocytoma to better determine factors associated with overall survival among patients with pineocytoma. We performed a comprehensive search of the published English language literature to identify studies containing outcome data for patients undergoing treatment for pineocytoma. Kaplan–Meier analysis was utilized to determine overall survival rates. Our systematic review identified 168 total patients reported in 64 articles. Among these patients, 21% underwent biopsy, 38% underwent subtotal resection, 42% underwent gross total resection, and 29% underwent radiation therapy, either as mono- or adjuvant therapy. The 1 and 5 year overall survival rates for patients receiving gross total resection versus subtotal resection plus radiotherapy were 91 versus 88%, and 84 versus 17%, respectively. When compared to subtotal resection alone, subtotal resection plus radiation therapy did not offer a significant improvement in overall survival. Gross total resection is the most appropriate treatment for pineocytoma. The potential benefit of conventional radiotherapy for the treatment of these lesions is unproven, and little evidence supports its use at present

Opracowanie modelu protezy nerwu obwodowego z polimeru naturalnego

Presented are the results of investigations into the preparation of a peripheral nerve prosthesis. The prosthesis is built up of a multichannel core having a diameter of 2 to 5 mm. The core prepared by freeze drying is housed in a polymeric sleeve. The prosthesis core is made of microcrystalline chitosan (MCCh) while the sleeve is prepared from poly(DL-lactide-coglycolide) copolymer. The usefulness of the prepared biomaterial was assessed by in vivo testing on animals.W pracy przedstawiono badania prowadzące do opracowania modelu protezy nerwu obwodowego. Proteza zbudowana jest z wielokanałowego rdzenia o średnicy od 2 do 5 mm wytworzonego metodą liofilizacji i osadzonego w tulei polimerowej. Rdzeń protezy wytworzono z mikrokrystalicznego chitozanu (MKCh), natomiast tuleję stanowi błona uzyskana z resorbowalnego kopolimeru poli(DL-laktyd-ko-glikolid). Opracowany biomateriał poddano ocenie przydatności w warunkach in vivo z wykorzystaniem zwierząt

Polymer hollow fiber-encapsulated peripheral nerve extracts change their activity towards injured hippocampal neurites in rats

The regeneration of the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) requires changes of the nonpromising environment. Applying peripheral nerve grafts and their extracts are both the useful method to induce regeneration of injured CNS neurites. Our previous reports showed that degeneration of peripheral nerves enhanced their neurotrophic activity in a time-dependent manner. Electrophoretical analysis of proteins obtained from degenerating sciatic nerves revealed significant changes in fractions of low molecular mass.The aim of the present work was to examine the influence of fractionated extracts from 7-day-predegenerated and non-predegenerated peripheral nerves upon injured hippocampal neurites in adult rats. The extracts were closed in fibrin-filled connective tissue chambers (CTC) or within CTC-wrapped polymer hollow fibers (PHF) of 30 kDa cut-off. The cell bodies of regrowing fibers were labeled with FITC-HRP.The CTCs appeared to be useful tool for implantation of artificial grafts into mammalian CNS. Full-spectrum nerve extracts induced strong regeneration of injured hippocampal neurites. The number of labeled cells within hippocampus was significantly lower in PHF groups than in CTC ones, indicating that low-mass proteins present in peripheral nerve extracts are not sufficient to induce successful regeneration

Dead-ended autologous connective tissue chambers in peripheral nerve repair - early observations

The effects of the repair of nerve gap injuries are still unsatisfactory, despite the great progress in microsurgery. Until now, there is no effective method to induce the regeneration of the transected peripheral nerve when its distal stump is missing. The aim of this work was to examine whether the implantation of dead-ended connective tissue chambers can promote the outgrowth of injured peripheral neurites. This method differs from all previous nerve guides because it totally eliminates the distal part of the nerve and restricts the influence of surrounding tissues. We have also tried to establish whether some neurotrophic factors can be applied by means of these chambers. The results of this work show that dead-ended autologous connective tissue chambers can be a useful tool in peripheral nerve injuries treatment, even when the distal part of the nerve is missing