Intracranial Volume and Head Circumference in Children with Unoperated Syndromic Craniosynostosis.

BACKGROUND: When analyzing intracranial volume gain resulting from operative intervention in craniosynostosis, it is necessary to understand the underlying growth. The authors sought to create comprehensive intracranial volume and occipitofrontal circumference growth charts, as measured on unoperated craniosynostotic children, and aimed to investigate whether intracranial volume and occipitofrontal circumference could act as proxy measures for each other. METHODS: All preoperative Great Ormond Street Hospital patients with a diagnosis of Apert, Crouzon-Pfeiffer, or Saethre-Chotzen syndrome from the year 2004 onward were considered for this study. A control group of unaffected Great Ormond Street Hospital patients were also measured. Intracranial volume and occipitofrontal circumference were measured on the same scans. To study correlation between intracranial volume and occipitofrontal circumference, logarithmic fits were assessed. RESULTS: One hundred forty-seven craniosynostotic children with 221 preoperative scans were included (81 Apert, 81 Crouzon, 31 Pfeiffer, and 28 Saethre-Chotzen). The control group comprised 56 patients with 58 scans. Apert intracranial volume curves were significantly larger than those of other syndromes from 206 days onward; occipitofrontal circumference curves were not significantly different. The correlation coefficient between intracranial volume and occipitofrontal circumference was R = 0.87 for all syndromes combined and R = 0.91 for the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Apert syndrome children have a larger intracranial volume than children with other syndromic craniosynostotic conditions and unaffected children but maintain a similar occipitofrontal circumference. This study demonstrates high correlation between intracranial volume and occipitofrontal circumference with clinical care implications. The authors' reference growth curves can be used to monitor intracranial volume change over time and correct operative change for underlying growth.

Sir William Arbuthnot Lane and His Contributions to Plastic Surgery.

Surgical subspecialties were just emerging at the turn of the 20th Century, before this time, general surgeons had to adjust their operative skills to address disorders throughout the body. Sir William Arbuthnot Lane was a British surgeon, whose restless mind led him to wander throughout the field of general surgery and beyond. Although controversial, he advanced in the repair of cleft lip and palate, introduced the "no touch" operative technique, internal fixation of fractures, and is credited as the first surgeon to perform open massage of the heart. During The Great War, he established the British Plastic Surgery unit at Sidcup and delegated the care of facial and jaw injuries to young Major Harold Gillies. Lane later founded The New Health Society, an organization that stimulated the natural food movement. Sadly, in his latter years Lane's thinking drifted further away from with the times and his professional credibility waned. Nevertheless, Lane's variegated life is of sufficient interest to deserve reassessment.

Heading in football, long-term cognitive decline and dementia: evidence from screening retired professional footballers.

BACKGROUND: Heading impairs cognition in the short and medium-terms; however, little is known about the long-term consequences. This study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that chronic low-level head trauma is associated with persistent cognitive decline. METHODS: All members of Former Player Associations (FPAs) from four professional football clubs in the UK were contacted to participate in the study. Participants were required to complete a self-assessed test of cognition, the Test Your Memory questionnaire. Further information was collected from respondents in order to analyse the potential effect of a number of variables on cognition. RESULTS: 10 of 92 respondents (10.87%) screened positive for possible mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. There was no association between low-risk and high-risk playing positions (HR = 0.40, p = 0.456) or length of playing career (HR = 1.051 95% CI 0.879 to 1.257, p = 0.586) and a positive screening result. Age was a risk factor (HR = 1.137 per additional year, 95% CI 1.030 to 1.255, p < 0.05), although this was not significantly different from the population prevalence across age groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that once a player ends their playing career, their risk of harm falls in line with the population, suggesting either that changes are reversible or that heading may not be as harmful as commonly thought. Future longitudinal studies of large numbers of professional football players are needed to support the findings from this study.