Is there a way to avoid surgical complications of twist drill craniostomy for evacuation of a chronic subdural hematoma?

BACKGROUND: Although twist drill craniostomy for evacuation of a chronic subdural hematoma is a rapid and minimally invasive procedure, it carries the risk of complications because it is a 'blind' technique. Our aim was to analyse the complications in a series of patients treated by this technique in order to identify methods of avoidance by modifications in the surgical technique. METHOD: Thirty-nine patients with a chronic subdural hematoma underwent twist drill craniostomy between November 2002 and December 2005 in our clinic. When a surgical complication happened we modified our surgical technique to see if this avoided it in future patients. FINDINGS: Surgical complications happened in 7 patients (17.9%) including inadequate drainage, brain penetration, acute epidural hematoma and catheter folding. After preventive modifications these complications did not recur. CONCLUSIONS: Modifications in the technique of twist drill craniostomy are described in this paper which may minimise the occurrence of surgical complications.

Contralateral development of chronic subdural hematoma after evacuation of chronic subdural hematoma. A case report.

Contralateral acute complications such as acute epi/subdural hematomas can be encountered after evacuation of a chronic subdural hematoma, though they are rare. We found only one case of chronic subdural hematoma following the surgery for contralateral chronic subdural hematoma, have been published in English language literature. A 73-year-old male admitted to our hospital with a right-sided subdural hematoma. The subdural hematoma was evacuated through a burr-hole. A left-sided subdural higroma appeared after operation and turned into classical subdural hematoma in the course of time. After evacuation of contralateral chronic subdural hematoma, the patient recovered completely. All stages of the development of contralateral chronic subdural hematomas were shown by serial computed tomograms. It was suggested that traumatic chronic subdural hematomas develop from mostly subdural higromas. If contralateral subdural higroma is seen after surgical evacuation of a chronic subdural hematoma, the possibility of development of contralateral chronic subdural hematoma must be kept on mind.

Islets of meningioma in an acoustic schwannoma in a patient with neurofibromatosis-2: pathology and magnetic resonance imaging findings.

Mixed tumors of the cerebellopontine angle, composed of meningioma and schwannoma components, are extremely rare; so far, only 12 cases have been reported in the literature. They are thought to be exclusively associated with neurofibromatosis-2. We present a mixed tumor of schwannoma and meningioma in a patient with neurofibromatosis-2 and discuss the pathology and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in relation to the literature. Review of the literature shows that a typical MRI pattern has not been established for mixed tumors and it seems unlikely that a meningioma component can be differentiated within a schwannoma preoperatively.

Correlation of thallium-201 uptake with proliferating cell nuclear antigen in brain tumours.

The aim of this study was to assess the correlation between thallium-201 (201Tl) uptake and proliferative activity measured using the proliferating cell nuclear antigen labelling index (PCNA-LI) in brain tumours. Twenty-nine patients with brain tumours were included in this study. Of these, seven were diagnosed with meningioma, 13 had high grade glioma (HGG) and nine had low grade glioma (LGG). A 210Tl single photon emission computed tomography study was performed on all patients before operation, and 201Tl uptake index (UI) and retention index (RI) values were calculated. Cell proliferation was determined by PCNA. While all of the HGGs and meningiomas showed intense 201Tl accumulation on visual interpretation, eight of the nine LGGs did not show accumulation of 210Tl at the tumour site. 201Tl UI values were 3.23+/-0.89 and 2.67+/-0.66 in HGG, 1.27+/-0.18 and 1.23+/-0.09 in LGG, and 4.35+/-1.60 and 2.52+/-0.78 in meningioma on early and delay images, respectively. There was a statistical difference between the 201Tl UI in HGG and LGG. PCNA-LI values were 16.72+/-6.15%, 1.63+/-0.81% and 2.00+/-1.88% in HGG, LGG and meningioma, respectively. The PCNA-LI in HGG was significantly higher than in LGG and meningioma. While the correlation coefficient between the 201Tl UI and the PCNA-LI was 0.94 in gliomas (n=22), there was no correlation in meningiomas. No statistically significant correlation was found between the RI and the PCNA-LI in gliomas. The presence of a strong positive correlation between 201Tl uptake and PCNA-LI indicates that 201Tl uptake can predict the proliferative activity of the glioma.

Nonoperative treatment of acute extradural hematomas: analysis of 80 cases.

Between 1986 and 1994, 270 patients with an acute extradural hematoma (EDH) were treated in the Department of Neurosurgery, Izmir State Hospital in Izmir, Turkey. Eighty patients with a supratentorial EDH of less than 30 mL in volume were treated conservatively. The 69 male and 11 female patients ranged in age from 5 to 68 years. Five of the patients subsequently underwent surgery because of the deterioration in the level of consciousness and enlargement of EDH. One patient died after the operation. EDHs were localized in the temporal region in all five patients who subsequently required the surgical intervention. It has been emphasized that the findings on a computed tomographic (CT) scan performed very early may be misleading in patients with an EDH in progress. We concluded that the temporal location of EDHs with heterogeneous density in patients whose CT scan was performed less than 6 hours after trauma had a higher risk of hematoma growth and thus should be treated surgically. Periodic CT scans should be performed at brief intervals during the early phase of hospitalization.