A giant occipital encephalocele: A case report

Occipital encephalocele is a rare congenital anomaly that is characterized by herniation of brain tissue through a defect in the skull. Because of their enormous size, they pose a surgical challenge. Occipital encephalocele is the commonest of all encephalocele; the management of encephalocele defects requires immediate surgical closure. The author reports a case of a five months old female baby who presented a progressively increasing swelling over the occipital region. This swelling was present since birth. Surgery was planned to reduce the size of the swelling as well as its contents. The sac was excised and reduced sufficiently enough to accommodate the healthy-looking brain tissue. This infant did well postoperatively

Treatment of chronic pain by spinal cord stimulation

Failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS) is often used to describe the condition of patients who have experienced continued pain after surgery. It is of multifactorial genesis and may be the consequence of various lumbar spinal diseases; lumbar disc herniation surgery or spinal canal stenosis laminectomy. The presented series included 13 patients affected with chronic pain related to FBSS who underwent implantation of spinal cord stimulation. The mean percentage of pain relief was 90 % for all patients. 60% of the patients were in a better psychological status and the intake of analgesic medications has been reduced of more than 70%. More than 50% of the patients could resume professional activities. Analysis of the risks and benefits comes in favour of spinal cord stimulation

Impact des émissions atmosphériques industrielles (CO2) sur la qualité de l'air ambiant dans la région d'Arzew, Algérie

Les principaux objectifs étaient d'identifier la source et d'évaluer le niveau de pollution atmosphérique, conformément à la législation et aux normes nationales et internationales relatives à la qualité de l'air ambiant. Ce travail a porté sur l'impact des émissions de dioxyde de carbone (CO2) générées par les activités industrielles de raffinage du pétrole, de traitement du gaz naturel liquéfié et de pétrochimie, sur la qualité de l'air ambiant dans la région d'Arzew, Algérie en 2017. L'étude a révélé que la concentration annuelle moyenne de CO2 ne dépassait pas la valeur limite recommandée par la norme européenne EN 13779.  Cette étude a également démontré que les niveaux de teneur en CO2 dépendaient des taux d’émission industriels et des saisons météorologiques, atteignant leur maximum en été principalement à cause des conditions météorologiques relativement stables

Modélisation de la dispersion des émissions atmosphériques industrielles dans la région d'Arzew

L'audit environnemental est un processus qui évalue périodiquement la performance et la conformité des installations mis en place pour assurer la protection de l'environnement. Cette étude est menée dans le but d'évaluer l'impact de la dispersion des polluants atmosphériques tels que les NOx, PM10 et NH3 sur la qualité de l'air ambiant au niveau des sites industriels et des zones urbaines en 2017, 2018 et 2019, en utilisant le modèle ARIA IMPACT. Les résultats de la modélisation indiquent que le niveau de polluants étudiés en milieu urbains est bien supérieur à l'objectif de qualité de l'air ambiant conformément à la réglementation en vigueur, alors qu'en milieu industriel, l'air ambiant est considéré comme assez pollué en PM10 au niveau des sites industriels N°1 et N°2 et relativement pollué en NOx dans le site industriel N°1

Surgical management of intramedullary spinal cord metastasis: Report of three cases that revealed unknown malignancies

Intramedullary spinal cord metastasis (IMSCM) is a rare complication of malignancies still studied by case reports; although surgery is related with the best results, the management is still debated considering the risks and the low life expectancy; in fact, many authors prefer conservative management (radiotherapy, chemotherapy), and so less than 200 cases reported in the literature with patients IMSCM were treated surgically; reporting such cases will help to understand the pathology and elaborate a clear management protocol. We report three cases of IMSCM operated at our department; in those patients, the intramedullary lesions revealed the primary tumours.   &nbsp

Skull metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma in normal liver: Case report

Background: So far hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common liver malignant tumour; it is rarely encountered on a healthy liver (9). The metastasis from HCC cancer are seen in lymph nodes (16%–40%) and lungs (34%–70%), (1,3,4,5,7,8), bone metastasis is unusual and some locations stay rare among them the skull (2,4,5). We report here a case of a patient operated in our department for skull metastasis. That patient was followed for hepatocellular carcinoma in digestive surgery department. Case presentation: The patient is a 57 years old male presenting HCC on healthy liver, the patient was referred to our department by digestive surgery colleagues to manage a parietal subcutaneous mass; brain CT scans were performed objectified a calvarial osteolytic process. We remove the tumour and we put a cranioplasty using surgical cement, later the histological studies were in favour of secondary location of hepatocellular carcinoma. Conclusion: Skull metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma is rare, reporting such cases strengthen the idea of evoking HCC metastasis in the differential diagnosis of cranial subcutaneous mass

Communicating spinal epidural thoracic arachnoid cyst en-bloc resection: A case report

Background: Spinal extradural arachnoid cyst is an uncommon, expanding lesion which may communicate with the subarachnoid space, The etiology still remains unclear, but the most accepted explanation is the existence of areas of weakness in the spinal dura , Spinal arachnoid cysts are usually in the thoracic spine, and they may cause symptoms due to spinal cord compression. Case Presentation: Patient is a 54-years-old female who presented with progressive back pain and motor deficit, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study revealed an extradural cyst extending from T2 to T4 isointense with the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) on all sequences and did not enhance on T1-weighted post-contrast MRI. Patient underwent T2-T4 laminectomy, en-bloc resection of the lesion was achieved and the histopathological examination objectified an arachnoid cyst. Conclusion: Spinal extradural arachnoid cyst can cause neurologic deficit and the mainstay of treatment in patients with neurological symptoms is surgical removal of the cyst together with ligation of the communicating pedicle and closure of the dural defect

Resection of giant invasive thoracic schwannoma: Case report

Even though spinal nerve sheath tumours, presented especially by schwannomas, are considered to be mostly benign; they can gain a huge size and have an invasive behaviour, causing spinal cord compression, bone destruction, and make the total removal of the tumour a real challenge for the surgeon. This type of tumours is recently described as giant invasive spinal schwannoma (GISS), this type rarely reported in the thoracic region; deserve a special studying vis-a-vis the diagnosis and the management of both the tumour and the bone destruction.       &nbsp

Early diagnosis and management of traumatic dura tear with brachial plexus injury without spinal lesions in childhood

Although the dura is a thick membrane, it could be severed in spine surgery and less frequently by a traumatism (7,8,10); in this case, it is usually accompanied with bone or ligamentous injury (2). Rare cases are reported of a traumatic dura tear without spinal lesion and would suspect in the first place a brachial plexus injury (2,8). Dura tears are rarely seen in childhood (3). We report a case of early diagnosis of dura tear in brachial plexus injury without bone or ligamentous lesions on a child of 4 years old and we discuss the diagnostic and treatment modalities

Quel avenir pour la steppe à Alfa dans le Sud-Ouest algérien ?

Les résultats obtenus dans la lutte contre la désertification, malgré les moyens mobilisés, restent très mitigés et révèlent l’inefficacité des approches et méthodes adoptées. La steppe algérienne est confrontée depuis plusieurs décennies à un problème de dégradation induit par l’effet combiné de facteurs anthropiques et naturels. Toute action de préservation et de réhabilitation de la steppe doit reposer dans un premier temps sur un diagnostic permettant d’identifier et d’évaluer le poids de chaque facteur dégradant. Parmi les facteurs souvent soulignés on note le climat, le parcours, le défrichement et la pratique d’une agriculture pluviale sans une justification ni estimation de cet impact. Le diagnostic ciblant et classant les principaux facteurs de régression des formations steppique de Stipa tenacissima est l’objectif assigné à cette publication. La démarche retenue permettant de sauver la steppe doit d’abord reposer sur une identification des facteurs causaux de cette situation et une évaluation de leur impact et classification