[Clinical and radiological assessment of anterior cervical discectomy]

Cervical discectomy has a high success rate. This study aimed to evaluate clinical and radiological results of anterior cervical discectomy. This was a retrospective study in which its emphasis was on surgical outcomes in patients operated with anterior fusion surgery method along with artificial cage. The study was conducted on 43 patients who underwent standard Smith-Robinson technique. Postoperative follow-up period was 2 years. Clinical assessment was done through Odom criteria, Neck disability index and VAS. The mean age of patients was 50 y. The most common symptom was neck pain and sensory disorder was the most prevalent sign. The most common level involved was C5-6. The mean medical treatment period was 4.5 months. Motor defect and neck pain were the main reasons of surgery. According to Odom Criteria, 80% of patients had reasonable satisfaction after surgery. Also, on the basis of neck disability index and visual analog scale of neck and associated pain, patients had significant improvement. The rate of successful fusion was 95%. Due to the possibility of complete discectomy and complete removal of compression, anterior surgery approach is preferred over the posterior one.

Clinical analysis of EEG parameters in prediction of the depth of anesthesia in different stages: a comparative study

Evaluation of depth of anesthesia is especially important in adequate and efficient management of patients. Clinical assessment of EEG in the operating room is one of the major difficulties in this field. This study aims to find the most valuable EEG parameters in prediction of the depth of anesthesia in different stages. EEG data of 30 patients with same anesthesia protocol [total intravenous anesthesia] were recorded in all anesthetic stages in Shohada-e-Tajrish Hospital. Quantitative EEG characteristics are classified into 4 categories of time, frequency, bispectral and entropy-based characteristics. Their sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in determination of depth of anesthesia were yielded by comparing them with the recorded reference signals in awake, light anesthesia, deep anesthesia and brain dead patients. Time parameters had low accuracy in prediction of the depth of anesthesia. The accuracy rate was 75% for burst suppression response. This value was higher for frequency- based characteristics and the best results were obtained in beta spectral power [accuracy: 88.9%]. The accuracy rate was 89.9% for synch fast slow bispectral characteristics. The best results were obtained from entropy-based characteristics with the accuracy of 99.8%. Analysis of the entropy-based characteristics had a great value in predicting the depth of anesthesia. Generally, due to the low accuracy of each single parameter in prediction of the depth of anesthesia, we recommend multiple characteristics analysis with greater focus on entropy-based characteristics