Familial trigeminal neuralgia.

The authors present the cases of four brothers and sisters, two women and two men, who had trigeminal neuralgia, with the onset of pain occurring between the ages of 24 and 31 years. Three of them were treated surgically. A review of the literature reveals that familial trigeminal neuralgia is a very rare condition.

[Surgical treatment of traumatic lesions of medium-inferior segment of cervical spine]. / Tratamento cirúrgico das lesões traumáticas do segmento médio-inferior da coluna cervical.

The most frequently injury level of cervical spine is C2, followed by C5 and C6. Injuries were most commonly sustained in the third decade of life, with a decreasing incidence in the advanced age. As part of these lesions is located in the elements of the anterior column, according to Denis's definition and, taking in consideration the biomechanics studies of the segment medium - inferior of the cervical spine, as well as the mechanisms that cause their lesions, this study was elaborated, with the intention of presenting the techniques of anterior cervical fusion, with bony graft and plates of Caspar, Morscher (CSLP) and ORION. The advantages and disadvantages of each type of anterior fixation are presented accordind to the literature review. The improvement in the material relate to plates and screws fixation techniques are illustrated.

Carotid angiography in cerebral metastases.

Carotid angiography was performed in 138 cases of brain metastases. No pathologic vascularity was found in 55 per cent, pathologic arterial phase in 10 per cent, capillary phase in 14 per cent and pathologic venous phase in 12 per cent. In six cases, pathologic vascularity was found in all three phases; five of these were hypernephromas.

Superficial temproal-middle cerebral artery anastomosis for internal carotid occlusion.

The observations presented are based on 11 patients who had suffered from stroke caused by internal carotid occlusion. In all cases an anastomosis between the superficial temporal artery (STA) and a cortical temporal branch of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) was done. This resulted in a considerable additional blood supply from the external carotid to the affected middle cerebral circulation. The extent of the territory of the MCA irrigated by the STA depends upon the different anatomical configurations of the MCA. There was a considerable improvement in neurological status even in the chronic post-stroke stage. A topographical correlation between the postoperative angiographically identified increase of rCBF and the recovery or considerable improvement of neurological functions was not ascertained.

Primary non-hodgkin brain lymphomas

The authors describe 5 cases of primary lymphomas of the brain in patients without immunodeficiency. All the cases were non-Hodgkin tumors. The preoperative period lasted a few months. Postoperative course was bad in three cases and good in two others. Best means for diagnosis was CT. Routine histological and also immunohistological preparations were carried out in all cases to establish the diagnosis.