Mechanisms of injury and treatment principles of gunshot wounds

Gunshot wounds have been an important source of injury for centuries and continue to occur. The military medical communities have developed standard procedural sequences and principles that may assist and serve as references to the care of civilian gunshot wound patients. In addition to the basic understanding of the wounding patterns and potential extent of the damage caused by the ballistic characteristics of the missile, three principles need to be emphasized in the course of the treatment: timely debridement, delivery of antibiotics, and delayed closure of the wound. Despite recent innovations and improvements in medicine, the three principles still stand, and may assist even surgeons with minimal experience in treating gunshot wounds to achieve reliable results. The situation and environment of civilian medical facilities differ from those of the military in war time, and less invasive and more conservative methods may be attempted in accordance with available resources.

Escherichia Coli Subdural Empyema Following Subdural Hygroma in Elderly Patient

Subdural empyema of the brain is an uncommon disorder that occurs more frequently in children than in adult. Authors report a very rare of subdural empyema following the subdural hygroma after mild head injury. The exact mechanism of infection is not known. However, we have to consider subdural infection as one of differential diagnosis in elderly patient with subdural hygroma when new abnormal density lesion is developed in the subdural space.

Idiopathic Hypertrophic Spinal Pachymeningitis: A Case Report

Idiopathic hypertrophic pachymeningitis (IHP) is a rare, chronic nonspecific and granulomatous inflammatory disorder of the dura with unknown etiology. The diagnosis can be established by open biopsy and exclusion of all other specific granulomatous and infectious diseases. We report a typical case of spinal IHP occurring in a long segment of cervical and thoracic dura from C6 to T8. The patient was 56-yr-old female, who had been suffered from pain on her upper back and both arms for 3 months and recent onset motor weakness of both legs. During the 9 months of follow-up period, she experienced the improvement of her neurologic symptoms with combined therapy of partial excision and corticosteroid medication. Since early surgical intervention and subsequent pulse ste-roid therapy are mandatory for this disease to avoid irreversible damage of nervous system, the identification of this unique disease entity is essential on frozen diagnosis. A few cases have been reported in Korean literature.

Analysis of Inconclusive Diagnostic lesions in Stereotactic Biopsy: Review of Cases in 5 Years

While stereotactic biopsy increases the accuracy of obtaining appropriate tissue for precise diagnosis, inconclusive diagnostic lesions can still be observed frequently. We present a review of 43 patients with inconclusive diagnostic samples in stereotactic biopsy between June 1989 and June 1994. inconclusive diagnostic lesions were found in 43 patients(17.9%); the biopsy of these patients showed reactive gliosis in 22, foam cell infiltration and/or demyelination with coagulation necrosis in 8, chronic inflammatory cell infiltration with necrosis, fibrosis in 6, no evidence of tumor in 5, and ganglioglial lesion in 2. The final diagnosis was based on histological findings of permanent paraffin sections after rebiopsy or open surgery, close follow-up CT/MRI scan findings, clinical features and/or history, and serological studies;neoplasm 16, infarction/leukodystrophy 8, infection/inflammation 4, granuloma 1, and no confirmative diagnosis 4, In conclusion, rebiopsy or open surgery is recommended if the lesion is suspected to be a neoplasm, and the patient is closely observed with repeated radiological studies if the lesion is suspected to be benign. This study provides evidence that in some cases an accurate histopathological diagnosis can not be made with stereotactic biopsy and therefore, further investigations are needed in such inconclusive cases.

Treatment of Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage a Comparative Clinical Analysis of Stereotactic and Conservative Treatment

The treatment of patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage remains a matter of debate in neurosurgery and neurology. We analyzed 203 patients with spontaneous intracerebral hematoma and compared the result of treatment between two groups:100 patients with stereotactic hematoma evacuation and 103 patients with conservative treatment. Evaluation of outcome was performed at discharge with Glasgow coma scale, motor deficit, Glasgow outcome scle. Stereotactic surgical patients with medium sized(20-50 cc) hematoma, which located in basal gaglia and thalamic area made a significantly better functional recovery than did patients with conservative treated group. Patients with relatively mild neurologic deficit preoperatively had better functional outcomes in the stereotactic surgical group. Stuporous or comatose patients had no better outcome after surgery, but showed a significantly lower mortality rate than conservative treated group. There was no significant difference in the outcome in relation to the timing of surgery, but rebleeding risk was high on early operated patients. Stereotactic surgery can minimized the brain damage and be performed under local anesthesia, so there was a trend toward better quality of survival and chance of survival in the operated group.

The Clinical Experience of Gliosarcoma(3 Cases)

The clinicopathologic features of 3 cases of intracerebral gliosarcoma are reported and correlations among the CT findings, angiographic findings, the surgical and histological aspects are discussed. In two cases, these tumors appear on CT scan as an isodense mass with well defined margins and homogenous contrast enhancement, attached to flax, which may mimic that of meningioma, but has a cystic or necrotic area and calcific area. Angiographic findings are different, one showed scanty tumor staining and another showed mixed dural and pial vascular supply, early cortical venous drainage, irregular tumor vessels, and a prominent vascular stain with well defined tumor margins. These tumors were rather well demarcated, firm in surgical aspect. In order case, tumor appears on CT scan as huge intracerebral lesions, with large necrotic areas and peripheral contrast enhancement:this CT aspect, similar to that of glioblastoma, corresponds to a rather diffusely infiltrating growth of the tumor and the prevalence of a gliomatous component. The genesis and histopathology of gliosarcoma are also discussed and we needs more prolonged period of time for study on metastasis and prognosis of these cases.