Affordable self-regulating irrigation device for microsurgery using readily available malleable wire and a Silastic tube: a technical note.

BACKGROUND: A relevant irrigating and flushing maneuver during cerebral microsurgical procedures allows for a neat and optimal operative field. However, when operating on the deep region of the brain, a delicately created slim surgical corridor could unintentionally hinder the assisting surgeon from properly performing this routine maneuver. METHOD: To address this problem, the authors devised a useful and convenient irrigation system that can be used during cerebral microsurgery. RESULTS: This system only necessitates a readily available silastic feeding tube and a malleable wire. The advantages of our devised system include the convenience of free molding, good endurance of the molded contour, and easy control over the amount of irrigation. CONCLUSIONS: In this report, the authors demonstrated technical tips for using this newly devised system.

A label-free cellulose SERS biosensor chip with improvement of nanoparticle-enhanced LSPR effects for early diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage-induced complications.

It is very difficult to predict some complications after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), despite rapid advances in medical science. Herein, we introduce a label-free cellulose surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) biosensor chip with pH-functionalized, gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-enhanced localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effects for identification of SAH-induced cerebral vasospasm and hydrocephalus caused by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The SERS biosensor chip was implemented by the synthesis reaction of the AuNPs, which were charged positively through pH level adjustment, onto a negatively-charged cellulose substrate with ξ = -30.7 mV. The zeta potential, nanostructural properties, nanocrystallinity, and computational calculation-based electric field distributions of the cellulose-originated AuNPs were optimized to maximize LSPR phenomena and then characterized. Additionally, the performance of the SERS biosensor was compared under two representative excitation laser sources in the visible region (532 nm) and near-infrared region (785 nm). The Raman activities of our SERS biosensor chip were evaluated by trace small molecules (crystal violet, 2 µL), and the biosensor achieved an enhancement factor of 3.29 × 109 for the analytic concept with an excellent reproducibility of 8.5% relative standard deviation and a detection limit of 0.74 pM. Furthermore, the experimental results revealed that the five proposed SERS-based biomarkers could provide important information for identifying and predicting SAH-induced cerebral vasospasm and hydrocephalus complications (91.1% reliability and 19.3% reproducibility). Therefore, this facile and effective principle of our SERS biosensor chip may inspire the basis and strategies for the development of sensing platforms to predict critical complications in various neurosurgical diagnoses.