A case of thalamic abscess treated by endoscopic surgery.

We report about a 7-year-old female child with cyanotic heart disease whose thalamic abscess was successfully treated by endoscope-assisted abscess drainage. Endoscopic aspiration of thalamic abscess appears to be a safe and effective method of treatment for deep-seated abscesses, as direct visualization of the abscess cavity is possible and the completeness of evacuation can be assessed.

Thalamic glioma. An unusual presentation.

Thalamic gliomas, because of their anatomical location, usually present with early and extensive neurologic signs. A case, which at initial presentation had subjective hemianaesthesia, but no objective neurologic deficit, is being reported, to emphasize the importance of proper investigations even in absence of clinical signs.

Thalamic syndrome and cortical hypoperfusion on technetium-99m HM-PAO brain SPECT

The six patients included in this study had painful dysesthesia, resulting from vascular lesions in or near the thalamus, confirmed by computerized tomography(CT) brain scan. Using hexamethyl propyleneamine oxime(HM-PAO) single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT) brain scanning, regional cerebral perfusion(rCP) was demonstrated. In contrast to three patients with lesions near the thalamus who showed symmetrical cortical radioactivity, the other three patients with thalamic lesions revealed decreased rCP in the ipsilateral cerebral cortex on HM-PAO brain SPECT. We thought that the loss of afferent activating stimuli from the thalamus led to decreased cortical neuronal activity and the following hypoperfusion. In patients with thalamic syndrome resulting from thalamic lesions, the role of the remote effect of the thalamic damage and consequent cortical deregulation in the development of thalamic pain and/or neuropsychological symptoms cannot be excluded completely.