Consensus statement from the international consensus meeting on post-traumatic cranioplasty.

BACKGROUND: Due to the lack of high-quality evidence which has hindered the development of evidence-based guidelines, there is a need to provide general guidance on cranioplasty (CP) following traumatic brain injury (TBI), as well as identify areas of ongoing uncertainty via a consensus-based approach. METHODS: The international consensus meeting on post-traumatic CP was held during the International Conference on Recent Advances in Neurotraumatology (ICRAN), in Naples, Italy, in June 2018. This meeting was endorsed by the Neurotrauma Committee of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Neurotrauma, and several other neurotrauma organizations. Discussions and voting were organized around 5 pre-specified themes: (1) indications and technique, (2) materials, (3) timing, (4) hydrocephalus, and (5) paediatric CP. RESULTS: The participants discussed published evidence on each topic and proposed consensus statements, which were subject to ratification using anonymous real-time voting. Statements required an agreement threshold of more than 70% for inclusion in the final recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: This document is the first set of practical consensus-based clinical recommendations on post-traumatic CP, focusing on timing, materials, complications, and surgical procedures. Future research directions are also presented.

[Craniopharyngioma in children: importance of a multidisciplinary approach and therapeutic strategies in the treatment of relapsing]. / Craniofaringioma in età pediatrica: importanza di un approccio multidisciplinare e strategie terapeutiche nel trattamento della forme recidivanti.

The craniopharyngioma is a benign intracranial nonglial tumor derived from a malformation of the embryonic tissue. Represents approximately 6-9% of brain tumors in children. It grows close to the optic nerve, hypothalamus and pituitary. The most frequent histological variety in children is adamantinomatous. The initial symptoms of intracranial hypertension is headache and nausea, followed by visual disturbances, impaired hormonal changes such as the secretion of GH, gonadotropins, TSH and ACTH and central diabetes insipidus. We present the clinical case of MD, 5yrs at age, which shows signs of intracranial hypertension syndrome: neuroradiological findings raise the diagnosis of adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma for which the child underwent to sub-total surgical removal of the lesion and radiosurgery treatment. During the disease develops visual impairment, and secondary diabetes insipidus, hypothyroidism hipocotisolism that takes therapy with desmopressin (Minirin), Cortone acetate and L-tiroxine. For the failure of previous therapies, the child has performed chemotherapy with cisplatin (30 mg/sqm/day) and Etoposide (150 mg/mq/day). A year after the end of the last cycle of chemotherapy was detected new progression of the lesion with the appearance of worsening headache and vomiting in the upright position. TC notes the expansion of the third ventricle and the patient undergoes surgery craniotomy. This clinical case underlines the difficulties in treatment of recurrent craniopharyngioma in situations where the anatomical location do not permit aggressive radical surgery. Anyway, new studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of systemic chemotherapy as a method of experimental treatment that could reduce the progression of disease.

Paediatric dissecting aneurysm of the posterior cerebral artery:.case report and review of the literature.

SUMMARY: Aneurysms in children are rare.We describe a large spontaneous dissecting aneurysm of the posterior cerebral artery. The clinical presentation was characterized by headache as the sole symptom due to a mass effect leading to hydrocephalus. Acute treatment with a temporary ventricular shunt was followed by occlusion of the aneurysm via an endovascular approach leading to a complete recovery of the patient.

Hypothalamo-hypophysial dysfunction after traumatic brain injury in children and adolescents: a preliminary retrospective and prospective study.

With two study protocols, one retrospective and the other prospective, we evaluated hypothalamo-hypophysial dysfunction (HHD) in paediatric patients treated for traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the neurosurgical or intensive care department at our hospital. The retrospective group comprised 22 patients who had experienced TBI 0.7-7.25 years before the study. The prospective group included 30 patients assessed at TBI (T0), 26 of 30 after 6 months (T6), and 20 of 26 after 12 months (T12). Auxological and hormonal basal parameters of hypothalamo-hypophysial function were evaluated at recall in the retrospective group, and at T0, T6 and T12 in the prospective group. Basal data and standard dynamic tests in selected patients revealed one with precocious puberty, one with total anterior hypopituitarism, one with central hypogonadism, and one with growth hormone (GH) deficiency in the retrospective group; three patients with cerebral salt-wasting syndrome, one with diabetes insipidus and seven with low T3 syndrome at T0 (all transient), one with hypocorticism at T6 confirmed at T12, and one with GH deficiency at T12 in the prospective group. The results of our study show that post-TBI HHD in our paediatric cohort is not uncommon. Of the 48 patients who underwent a complete evaluation (22 retrospective study patients and 26 prospective study patients evaluated at T6) five (10.4%) developed HHD 6 months or more after TBI. HHD was newly diagnosed in one previously normal patient from the prospective group at 12 months after TBI. GH deficiency was the most frequent disorder in our paediatric cohort.

Diffuse and focal brain stem tumors in childhood: prognostic factors and surgical outcome. Experience in a single institution.

OBJECTIVE: Brainstem tumors (BSTs) are usually gliomas and are divided into diffuse BSTs (DBSTs) and focal BSTs (FBSTs). The aim of this study is to investigate the different outcomes of these two entities. METHODS: Thirty-one patients with BSTs were admitted to our institution from 1995 to 2003. Patients with DBSTs were treated with locoregional radiotherapy (1.8 Gy/day for 54 Gy) and weekly vincristine for radiosensitization (1.5 mg/sm for six total doses). Patients with FBSTs underwent surgical resection. Chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy were considered in progression. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Fourteen patients were diagnosed as having DBSTs. The responses to treatment were ten cases of partial response, three of stable disease, and one of progressive disease. General and/or neurological symptoms improved in more than 80% of patients. The median time from diagnosis to progression and to death were, nonetheless, 8 (range of 3-13) and 13 (range of 4-25) months, respectively, with a 2-year overall survival rate of 12.3% [standard error (SE) 11.2]. Seventeen patients were diagnosed as having FBSTs. Gross total removal was achieved in 4/17 cases, subtotal removal in 7/17, and partial removal in 6/17. There was one surgery-related death. Eight out of 17 patients had adjuvant chemo- and/or radiotherapy after progression: 6/8 are without neurological symptoms and 2/8 have died due to tumor progression. The 4-year overall and disease-free survival rates are 87.4 (SE 8.4) and 58.8% (SE 11.9), respectively, the extent of resection being the most important prognostic factor (p=0.012). DBSTs continue to carry a dismal prognosis, thus demanding new treatment modalities; FBSTs can be treated surgically and patients benefit from a better prognosis.

Spinal cord gliomas and hydrocephalus: utility of neuroendoscopy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to report on the role of neuroendoscopy during the management of hydrocephalus that led to the diagnosis of intracranial tumoral dissemination and the subsequent finding of a spinal cord glioma. METHODS AND RESULTS: We present two children each with an intramedullary astrocytoma that presented initially with hydrocephalus without spinal cord symptoms. In both cases leptomeningeal gliomatous dissemination was asserted during routine endoscopy for the management of hydrocephalus. The diagnosis of a cervical and a lower thoracic intramedullary tumor was made soon after on magnetic resonance imaging. CONCLUSIONS: Spinal cord MRI with contrast should be considered initially in selected cases of hydrocephalus without evident diagnosis. The intraoperative diagnosis of gliomatous dissemination and secondary hydrocephalus due to unrecognized spinal cord gliomas was possible, in our experience, with the routine use of the neuroendoscope.

A patient with early puberty associated with Chiari 1 malformation.

A boy is described with early puberty and Chiari 1 malformation. It is not known whether there was an etiological relationship between these two conditions, or whether they were coincidental. This report emphasizes the utility of MRI when early puberty is diagnosed, particularly in males.

Chiari type I anomalies in children and adolescents: minimally invasive management in a series of 53 cases.

The authors studied the role of the sole posterior fossa bony decompression in the management of symptomatic children affected by Chiari type I anomalies. The series in the pediatric literature of this subject were reviewed and compared with that presented in this article. From May 1994 to December 1998, 53 patients (3 months to 26 years) were observed. They were divided into: asymptomatic patients (27), who received no surgical treatment and were only subject to clinical observation; symptomatic patients (brain stem compression 16, syringomyelia 10, including 7 with holocord). All the symptomatic patients were treated with the same surgical approach: bony decompression of posterior fossa with removal of the posterior arch of C-1 and the outer layer of the dura without dural opening. In all 16 (100%) of the 16 patients with brain stem compression the symptoms resolved or improved; in patients with syringomyelia the symptoms were resolved or improved in 94.4% of cases. Two children required further surgery after 13 and 24 months, respectively. This series seems to demonstrate that even a simple extradural surgical approach, with a lower rate of postoperative complications and short stay in hospital, is sufficient to arrest the disease and to improve the symptomatology in a high percentage of cases (97.2%), which is comparable to that achieved with other, more aggressive, procedures.

[Postoperative neurosurgical complications in brain tumors operated in the elderly]. / Complicazioni post-operatorie neurochirurgiche in tumori cerebrali operati in età geriatrica.

200 patients of geriatric age, operated on for cerebral neoplasm, have been studied in order to estimate the most important factors influencing the post-operative course. We have considered the "Volume of the tumour", the "Pre-operative and at-discharge Karnofsky Score", the possible "Pre-existent pathologies" and the checked "Post-operative complications". As a conclusion we have considered relevant over the final outcome the following factors: a) the presence of general pre-existent pathologies, first of all diabetes and hypertension; b) the volume, more than the site and nature, of the neoplasm subject of the operation; c) the nature and the importance of local post-operative complications.

[Statistical comparison of surgical results with or without laser in neurosurgery]. / Comparaison statistique des résultats chirurgicaux avec et sans laser en neurochirurgie.

In the literature, no significant statistical studies have been published on the effectiveness of laser compared with traditional procedures in neurosurgery; we have decided to study a series of 198 gliomas and 220 meningiomas operated upon either with a laser or with conventional techniques. We considered the post-operative morbidity, the duration and the quality of survival. These data have been clearly influenced by the type of surgery. On the contrary, no significative difference was observed concerning the survival rate of gliomas whatever their grading. In the laser-group, morbidity and quality of life are improved (36 months follow-up); but the mortality rate (3 years) is equal in both groups. Concerning meningiomas, patients of both groups (with and without laser) were clinically improved during the post-operative period. A significative difference appears only for meningiomas located in functional areas and operated with a laser.