RESUMO
The clinical application of intracranial compliance (ICC), ∆V/∆P, as one of the most critical indexes for hydrocephalus evaluation was demonstrated previously. We suggest a new definition for the concept of ICC (long-term ICC) where there is a longer amount of elapsed time (up to 18 months after shunting) between the measurement of two values (V1 and V2 or P1 and P2). The head images of 15 adult patients with communicating hydrocephalus were provided with nine sets of imaging in nine stages: prior to shunting, and 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months after shunting. In addition to measuring CSF volume (CSFV) in each stage, intracranial pressure (ICP) was also calculated using fluid-structure interaction simulation for the noninvasive calculation of ICC. Despite small increases in the brain volume (16.9%), there were considerable decreases in the ICP (70.4%) and CSFV (80.0%) of hydrocephalus patients after 18 months of shunting. The changes in CSFV, brain volume, and ICP values reached a stable condition 12, 15, and 6 months after shunting, respectively. The results showed that the brain tissue needs approximately two months to adapt itself to the fast and significant ICP reduction due to shunting. This may be related to the effect of the "viscous" component of brain tissue. The ICC trend between pre-shunting and the first month of shunting was descending for all patients with a "mean value" of 14.75 ± 0.6 ml/cm H2O. ICC changes in the other stages were oscillatory (nonuniform). Our noninvasive long-term ICC calculations showed a nonmonotonic trend in the CSFV-ICP graph, the lack of a linear relationship between ICC and ICP, and an oscillatory increase in ICC values during shunt treatment. The oscillatory changes in long-term ICC may reflect the clinical variations in hydrocephalus patients after shunting.
RESUMO
Control of the thermal and physical damage during skull base grinding is of great importance. We assess the effects of bur material (3 materials), angle of the bur (10 angles), bur diameter (10 diameters), gas coolant (4 coolants), and grinding time (10 times) to evaluate the role of operating variables in thermal and physical damage during skull bone grinding. After validation of finite element analysis (FEA) results with experimental data, the temperature in the grinding site and axial force are calculated using FEA. The use of a diamond bur leads to at least 24.48 and 12.9% reduction in thermal and physical damage, respectively. A change in angle of the bur from 0º to 90º leads to a 19.76-31.62 times increment in axial force. An increase in bur diameter from 1 to 5.5 mm led to 10.78-14.36% and 23.43-43.90% increase in maximum temperature and axial force, respectively. However, a bur diameter between 2.5 and 4 mm could provide enough grinding force with less thermal damage. Skull base grinding with dry (D) and normal saline (NS) coolants was always accompanied with thermal damage. The results of maximum and duration of temperature, axial force, and surface defect evaluation show CO2 coolants (especially internal CO2 coolant) are the best options to decrease thermal damage. The equations of temperature and axial force were estimated by regression analysis. This may be used as a guideline for neurosurgeons to control damage during skull base grinding and can also be helpful for the programming of robot-assisted skull grinding during surgery.