Impact of frailty, biomarkers and basic biochemical parameters on outcomes of comatose patients in status epilepticus: a single-center prospective pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Status epilepticus (SE) is a severe acute condition in neurocritical care with high mortality. Searching for risk factors affecting the prognosis in SE remains a significant issue. The primary study's aim was to test the predictive values of the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and the Modified 11-item Frailty Index (mFI-11), the biomarkers and basic biochemical parameters collected at ICU on the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) assessed at hospital discharge (hosp), and three months later (3 M), in comatose patients with SE. The secondary aim was to focus on the association between the patient's state at admission and the duration of mechanical ventilation, the ICU, and hospital stay. METHODS: In two years single-centre prospective pilot study enrolling 30 adult neurocritical care patients with SE classified as Convulsive SE, A.1 category according to the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Task Force without an-/hypoxic encephalopathy, we evaluated predictive powers of CFS, mFI-11, admission Status Epilepticus Severity Score (STESS), serum protein S100, serum Troponin T and basic biochemical parameters on prognosticating GOS using univariate linear regression, logistic regression and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis. RESULTS: Our study included 60% males, with a mean age of 57 ± 16 years (44-68) and a mean BMI of 27 ± 5.6. We found CFS, mFI-11, STESS, and age statistically associated with GOS at hospital discharge and three months later. Among the biomarkers, serum troponin T level affected GOS hosp (p = 0.027). Serum C-reactive protein significance in prognosticating GOS was found by logistic regression (hosp p = 0.008; 3 M p = 0.004), and serum calcium by linear regression (hosp p = 0.028; 3 M p = 0.015). In relation to secondary outcomes, we found associations between the length of hospital stay and each of the following: age (p = 0.03), STESS (p = 0.009), and serum troponin T (p = 0.029) parameters. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study found promising predictive powers of two frailty scores, namely CFS and mFI-11, which were comparable to age and STESS predictors regarding the GOS at hospital discharge and three months later in ICU patients with SE. Among biomarkers and biochemical parameters, only serum troponin T level affected GOS at hospital discharge.

Individualized perioperative management in transoral spine surgery: a single-center cohort study evaluating surgical wound complications and wound infections.

BACKGROUND: Transoral spine surgery is specific due to both its surgical approach and the spectrum of diseases it targets. Patients with high age and elevated clinical frailty scores are often involved, and there are reports of increased risks of surgical site infection (SSI) due to extended exposures requiring maxilotomy or mandibulotomy. Our case series describes surgical wound complications under the meticulous application of individualized perioperative multimodal management. METHODS: Our primary outcome was the occurrence of SSI and the secondary outcome was the occurrence of other noninfectious wound complications evaluated in 22 adult patients who consecutively underwent the transoral spine surgery from 2001 to 2018 (trauma - C2, cervical nonunion: 6 patients, 27%; tumor: 4 patients, 18%; osteomyelitis: 6 patients, 27%; other non-traumatic cases: 6 patients, 27%). Structuralized data comprising parameters related to nosocomial infections after spine surgery were continuously processed and put into specialized database of preventive multimodal nosocomial infection control protocol that was used as a main source of analyzed parameters. The mean age of studied cohort was 54.9 [Formula: see text] 15.5 years, with 68% males, mean body mass index (BMI) 24.9 [Formula: see text] 5.22, and the mean clinical frailty score was 2.59 [Formula: see text] 1.07. There were 7 patients (32%) who only had the transoral approach and 15 patients (68%) having this approach followed by additional posterior approach. We observed SSI from all wound complications for up to one year after surgery. RESULTS: There were 4 (18%) superficial wound complications from transoral approach, but none of them were infected. We had 2 patients (13%) with deep wound infections after subsequent posterior approach, but only one (4.5%) was classified as SSI. CONCLUSIONS: We describe the wound complications and the incidence of SSI in a series of 22 patients after the transoral surgery. Considering the average values of the clinical frailty score reaching 2.59, American Society of Anesthesiologists score of 2.73, and the BMI of 26.87, the transoral spine surgery did not seem to be a considerable risk for SSI in the analyzed cohort, provided preventive perioperative multimodal management is properly individualized and followed.

Single-stage total C-2 intralesional spondylectomy for chordoma with three-column reconstruction. Technical note.

Chordomas are locally invasive, malignant bone tumors that rarely occur in the cervical spine. En bloc resection or even fully resecting the tumor along its margin offers improved patient survival and a potential disease cure. Complete resection of tumors involving the upper cervical vertebrae requires a combined anterior-posterior approach but is complicated by the presence of vertebral arteries (VAs). In addition, reconstruction of the postresection defect may be prone to failure. The authors present a case of a chordoma involving the axis that was treated using a single-stage total intralesional C-2 spondylectomy with preservation of both VAs because the patient did not tolerate a preoperative occlusion test. A three-column reconstruction technique is also presented.