Microsurgery for intradural spinal tumors

About half of all spinal tumors are intradural. Due to their location and close proximity with the delicate neural structures, surgical removal requires great expertise and delicacy. Intramedullary tumors can hardly be removed without the help of the operating microscope and other microsurgical techniques. During a period of 18 months, 12 intradural tumors were operated upon in the Department of Neurosurgery, Aziz Fatimah Trust Hospital, Faisalabad. Out of the seven-extramedullary tumors, 4 were neurofibromas, 2 were arachnoid cysts and one was a meningioma. The live intramedullary lesions depicted a great histological variety; one ependymoma, one neurenteric cyst, one dermoid, one lipoma and one was reported as fibrous tissue. All neurofibromas were removed totally, while both arachnoid cysts were decapitated. Removal was total in three of the intramedullary lesions and sub-total in two. Ten patients [83.3%] improved after surgery. One patient [8.3%] remained at the same neurological status while one patient [8.3%] with a very large intramedullary ependymoma had a mild a deterioration in motor power. We conclude that complete removal of most intradural tumors is possible without increasing the neurological deficit

Treatment of Supratentorial anaplastic astocytomas [Subtotal resection and Radiotherapy vs Biobsy and Radiotherapy]

Supratentroial astrocytomas are the most common brain tumors. Judging the benefits of treatment for brain tumors is difficult because crude survival rates are unsatisfactory and the quality as well as the length of survival needs to be examined critically. Opinions vary as to the extent of resection in these tumors. The present study proves the usefulness of subtotal excision over open minimal biopsy by comparing the post operative quality of life enjoyed by patients undergoing these procedures. This study has shown that the patients undergoing subtotal excision enjoy.a better quality of life in the late post-operative period than those who underwent open minimal biopsy

Isolation of egg yolk immunoglobulins [IgY] by chloroform polyethylene glycol technique and assaying of antibodies against avian infectious bronchitis

The present research study was conducted to isolate the chicken egg yolk immunoglobulins [IgY] by chloroform polyethylene glycol [CPEG] technique and to measure antibody titers against avian infection bronchitis [AIB]. For this purpose 300 eggs of broiler breeder were procured from 10 different flocks [30 eggs from each], at least 3 to 4 weeks post-vaccination against avian infectious bronchitis [AIB]. The yolk of three eggs was pooled and subjected to the isolation of IgY by SPEG technique. The concentration of purified IgY was quantified by spectrophotometer and antibody titers against AIB were measured through hemagglutination inhibition [HI] test. Mean concentration of IgY in different flocks ranged from 2.65 to 3.7 g/dl with overall mean of 3.24 g/dl. The geomean antibody titers [GMT] against AIB ranged from 147 to 388 with cumulative GMT of 256. Correlation between concentration of IgY and AIB antibody titers was computed to be 0.88