[Cognitive performance in patients with surgically treated cerebral aneurysms]. / Desempenho cognitivo em pacientes operados de aneurisma cerebral.

Twenty five patients with cerebral aneurysms submitted to surgery were evaluated with cognitive tests to quantify late disorders in language, praxis, orientation, logics, comprehension, memory, depression, dementia and visual gnosis. Results were correlated with age, Hunt-Hess scale, blood at CT (Fisher), angiographic vasospasm (George), side, site, and size of aneurysm. Delayed cognitive disorder was absent in 8 (32%), slight in 5 (20%), moderate in 6 (24%) and severe in 6 (24%). Logics was more affected with 7 severe and moderate patients (28%), praxis was similarly affected in 6 (24%), orientation in 5 (20%), language and memory in 4 (16%); visual gnosis abnormalities, dementia and depression were rarely seen. Patients aged 25-50 years had best cognitive results with sequels absent or slight in 9 patients (75%). Aneurysms of right posterior communicating artery had cognitive sequels absent or slight in 5 (71.42%), right medium cerebral artery in 2 (66.66%). Aneurysms of left medium cerebral artery had the worse results with severe and moderate disabilities in 5 patients (71.42%). Delayed post operative cognitive results in patients operated with cerebral aneurysms are directly related to Hunt-Hess scale, amount of blood at CT, angiographic vasospasm and site of the aneurysm.

[IQ in hydrocephalus and myelomeningocele. Implications of surgical treatment]. / QI em pacientes com hidrocefalia e mielomeningocele. Implicações do tratamento cirúrgico.

Myelomeningocele occurs in 0.4 for 1000 neonates and is associated with hydrocephalus in 85-90%, and reports on cognition are sparsely found in literature. Forty five children with treated hydrocephalus and myelomeningocele were studied in regard of IQ, and statistically correlated to functional motor level, age of the first shunt, number of revisions of shunt, infection of the shunt and circumference of the head. The medium age was of 7.5 years (3-15 years), 16 males and 29 females. Three (6.6%) had a IQ score > 110, 11 (24.4%) had a score between 100-110, 8 between 85-100 (17.7%), 16 (35.5%) between 85-100 (17.7%) and 7 (15.5%) between 50-70. IQ directly correlated with motor level, having better cognitive results the children with minor functional motor disabilities. Cognition was best in children operated until the seven day of life (t 0.0099), with progressive worse results in children operated after the first month of life, no significance was observed in children operated in the period 7 to 31 days (t 0.1013). Worse results were observed in the group of patients with infection of shunts (t 0.0146). Results were progressively worse with reoperations. The best results in relation of the circumference of the head were seen with children in the medium range (t 0.0115); intermediate results were seen in patients between the medium range and-1SD (t 0.00130) and medium range and +1SD. The worse results were seen in patients at the extremes of > 1SD (t 0.0269) and < ISD (t 0.0042). According to cognitive results the surgical treatment of hydrocephalus have to be done until the first month of life, avoiding reoperations and infections that have unfavorable impact in IQ.

Evolving magnetic resonance spinal cord trauma in child: from hemorrhage to intradural arachnoid cyst.

Acquired arachnoid cysts of the spinal cord are uncommon causes of spinal cord compression in the pediatric group. Meningitis, trauma and hemorrhage are considered to be causative or contributing factors. Interestingly, no spinal arachnoid cysts have been reported in patients after subarachnoid hemorrhage or meningitis, conditions expected to cause arachnoid scarring. We describe a child of 1 year and 10 months with thoracic spine trauma with crural paraplegia and anesthesia at level T5 submitted to serial magnetic resonance imagery at 5 days and 18 months, after trauma showing evolution from subarachnoid hemorrhage and adhesions of the arachnoid space to a posterior hypertensive thoracic intradural arachnoid cyst.

[Familial cavernous angioma. Report in 3 generations]. / Angioma cavernoso familiar. Relato em três gerações.

Cavernous angioma is a vascular malformation that affect 0.5 to 0.7% of the population making up 8 to 15% of cerebrovascular malformations. It is the second vascular malformation in frequency of the central nervous system, supplanted only by classic arteriovenous malformation. It may occur in two forms: a sporadic form characterized by isolated lesions: and a familial form characterized by multiple lesions with an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance with high penetrance and varied expressivity in the proportion M1:F1. Symptoms related to cavernous angioma are seizures, headache or progressive neurologic deficit. The authors present a Chinese family with familial cavernous angioma. Manifestations of the disease occurred in three generations affecting only females. Clinical, neuroimage, pathological, natural course and genetical aspects of the disease are discussed.

[Granulomatous form of cerebral cryptococcosis: a case report]. / Forma granulomatosa da criptococose cerebral: relato de caso.

Cryptococcal granuloma or toruloma of the central nervous system is very rare, meningoencefalitis or meningitis being most common. The authors present the case of an immunocompetent male patient of 56 years old with initial clinical symptoms of intracranial hypertension due to an occípito-parietal crytococcal granuloma that was removed surgically. The patients was treated post operatively with anphotericin-B and 5-fluorcytosine. Pathophysiology, neuroimaging, diagnosis and treatment of this rare entity are discussed.

Facial motor responses evoked by direct electrical stimulation of the trigeminal root. Localizing value for radiofrequency thermorhizotomy.

In Sweet's description of RF-thermocoagulation for trigeminal neuralgia, the trigeminal nerve was stimulated at 50 c/s to evoke paraesthesias, in order to check the electrode location before the thermolesion is made. In 1979, we changed the frequency to 5 c/s, so as to produce in addition twitches in the masticatory muscles (in stead of the less detectable tetanization produced by 50 c/s stimulation). Since then, we started to observe, also, twitches in the muscles innervated by the facial nerve. These twitches were not always in the Orbicularis oculi (which corresponds to the classical blink reflex), but also in the lower facial muscles. Such clinically observable evoked motor responses (EMR)-which had not been reported before--were noticed in 44% of the 459 procedures performed from 1979 to 1988. When EMR were present, the threshold to evoke paraesthesias before thermolesion, and the duration of the thermolesion for obtaining a marked hypoaesthesia covering the entire painful territory, were significantly lower, respectively p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, than when EMR were absent. This indicates that the electrode was closer to the nerve when EMR were present. As a probable consequence, recurrence of pain was significantly lower in the EMR (+) group: 1.4%, than in the EMR (-) group: 5.8% (p < 0.05). The twitches corresponded to the territory of the evoked paraesthesias in 95%, and to the hypoaesthetic area created by the thermolesion in 96%. So, getting EMR in the territory of the pain can be a helpful indicator for an accurate location of the electrode in the trigeminal root, according to its somatotopic organization. These EMR are hypothesized to be due to a trigemino-facial reflex. A preliminary intra-operative EMG study clearly shows that for EMR in the upper part of the face we are dealing with blink-like reflexes, whilst for EMR in the lower face, mechanisms still remain unclear and need further study to be understood.

Hearing prognosis and intraoperative guidance of brainstem auditory evoked potential in microvascular decompression.

Intraoperative monitoring of brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) was done in 34 patients submitted to microvascular decompression (MVD). Seventeen of these patients had trigeminal neuralgia, and 17 had hemifacial spasm. Transitory postoperative hearing loss was observed in 6 (18%) of the patients, and permanent hearing loss was observed in 2 (6%) of the patients. Wave I-V interpeak latency (IPL) was calculated during each step of the MVD procedure in order to identify the dangerous steps of the surgery. Wave I-V IPL abnormalities occurred more frequently during cerebellar retraction. Of the 6 patients who had total loss of BAEP lasting throughout the surgery, 1 (17%) had definitive deafness. Ten of the 34 patients had an absence or partial diminution of BAEP without total normalization before the end of surgery. Among these 10 patients, 2 had transitory hearing loss and 1 had permanent hearing loss.

Removal of the roof of the external auditory meatus in approaching the tentorial notch through a low temporal craniotomy. Technical note.

Improved access to the tentorial notch can be obtained by removal of the roof of the external auditory meatus in association with a low temporal craniotomy. This approach decreases temporal lobe retraction and the risk of venous infarction. This method was perfected in the surgical laboratory on five cadavers and was successfully performed in a patient with a giant aneurysm of the posterior cerebral artery.

[Intraoperative brainstem auditory evoked potential in the microvascular decompression of the 5th and 7th cranial nerves]. / Potentiels évoqués auditifs précoces per-opératoires dans les décompressions neurovasculaires des nerfs trijumeau et facial.

Microvascular decompression techniques are rational surgical procedures for treating trigeminal neuralgia and facial hemispasm, with results ranging from good to excellent in 90% of cases. Among the most frequent complications recorded in the literature concerning these decompressions, impairment of the facial nerve and auditory nerve account for 5% to 10% due to mechanical traction and/or vascular injury. The peroperative use of early brain-stem evoked potentials (BAEP) was performed on 17 patients in a series of 325 decompressions of the trigeminal nerve, and on 17 patients in a series of 25 decompressions for facial hemispasm. Such peroperative monitoring is considered to be most important in the surgical technique. The author reports on his experience and results.