Tissue reaction to new scalp clips.

Animal testing was used to observe skin reaction to plastic hair clips. The results were similar to the reaction caused by standard Raney scalp clips, indicating that this hair clip may be a useful local alternative to imported scalp clips. Clinical trials confirmed the safety of this type of clip in a series of craniotomy procedures.

Prognosis of severe head injury: an experience in Thailand.

This study of 300 patients with severe head injury evaluated the clinical predictors determined after admission and associated with significant increase of poor outcome. The overall poor outcome was 58%. Logistic regression showed that age, status of basal cisterns on initial CT, Glasgow Coma Scale score (GCS) at 24 h after injury and electrolyte derangement occurring during admission strongly correlated with the outcome. A probability diagram of the outcome determined at 24 h after injury from the combination of the significant predictive factors provides a basis for determining the interventions to the appropriate target population. Intracranial pressure monitors with sophisticated devices may not be suitable for a developing country. Allocation of resources toward development of adequate intensive care beds and well-trained staff combined with serial CT imaging may be an alternative approach for the improvement of the outcome of severe head injury.

Social attitudes toward shaving for cranial neurosurgery.

Unshaved cranial neurological surgery has been successfully performed at Songklanagarind Hospital. However, within the Buddhist community, shaving is one of the traditional procedures for cleanliness and purification, and the unshaved method may have a cultural effect on social beliefs. Knowledge of social attitudes toward shaving or not shaving for cranial neurological surgery has implications for informed consent process prior to cranial operation. The attitudes of shaving were surveyed in the communities of Songkhla Province where Songklanagarind Hospital is situated. Of 1128 respondents, the female to male ratio was 3:2, their age was mostly under 40 years old and 91% were Buddhist. Sixty per cent of the respondents were in favour of shaving. After knowing the equivalent result of surgery either by shaved or unshaved method, the group favouring unshaved cranial surgery increased from 12 to 37%. Statistical analysis, through ordinal and multinomial logit, identified the young age, female and more educated who needed to socialize, and frequently meet many people were the groups who preferred or were ready to change their choice to the unshaved method. The neurosurgeon should give an advice to the patient not only the indications and results of surgery, but also a choice of shaved or unshaved cranial neurological surgery.

The changing pattern of head injury in Thailand.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patterns of head injury are changing with time. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 3194 and 4217 consecutive trauma patients who attended the emergency room in 1985-86 and 1996 respectively were studied with respect to age, sex, cause of injury, injury severity, pathology, and outcome. RESULTS: The number of patients with head injury in 1996 nearly doubled (1224/4,217:29.03%) when compared to the 1985-86 study (504/3, 194; 15.78%). This was due to an increase in the outpatient subgroup (1009/1224). The admitted patients with head injury showed a pattern of less severe injury. Severe head injury decreased from 12.4 to 7. 9%. However, acute subdural haematoma and diffuse brain injury increased from 12.2% and 9% to 32% and 16.8% respectively. The mortality rate of admitted patients increased statistically significantly from 14.4% to 21.8% between the 1985-86 and 1996 studies. CONCLUSIONS: This comparative study showed attend toward less severe injury. This may be due to multiple factors. The predominant factor may be the compulsory use of motorcycle helmets. The limitation of this study was that it utilised tertiary hospital based data only. Tertiary hospital receive more and serious head injured patients from surrounding provincial hospitals this may be the major cause of the increased the mortality rate.

Frontal ventriculoperitoneal shunt: technical note.

Cerebrospinal fluid shunt placement is one of the most commonly performed procedures in neurological surgery. The author describes a technique to avoid an additional skin incision in the frontal ventriculoperitoneal shunt procedure without the purchase of new instruments or prolongation of surgical time.

Intraoperative intracranial aneurysm rupture.

119 patients with surgically treated intracranial aneurysm between December 18, 1984 and October 1997 were analyzed resulting in nine patients with intraoperative aneurysm rupture. These nine cases formed the basis of this study. The incidence of intraoperative aneurysm rupture was 7.6 per cent. The mortality was 33.3 per cent. In our institution, maneuvers used to control profuse hemorrhage include induced hypotension, suction dissection, and temporary clips at the parent vessels. Some controversies exist regarding the effect of timing of surgery on intraoperative aneurysm rupture and ischemic consequence from induced hypotension. The argument is whether early surgery, within 72 hours, increases the incidence of intraoperative aneurysm rupture.

Nonshaved cranial neurosurgery.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative shaving for cranial neurosurgical procedures is still recommended in textbooks. There are reports demonstrating the success of nonshaved surgery. The objective of this study was to compare the surgical infection rate of cranial neurosurgical procedures with two different scalp preparations: shaved or nonshaved. METHODS: Clinical trials of nonshaved scalp preparation were performed in non-emergency cranial neurosurgical procedures at Songklanagarind Hospital from August 1994 to December 1996. Patients were entered in the nonshaved group using the following exclusion criteria: immunocompromised host, presence of infectious diseases, surgery with foreign material insertion, multiple operations within 1 month, and presence of traumatic wound around the operative site. Patients who survived less than 1 month after surgery were excluded except in cases where death resulted from intracranial infection. RESULTS: During the 29-month period, 225 of 1,244 cranial neurosurgical procedures were selected for study. Ages ranged from 4 to 86 years. Brain tumors were encountered in 57%. In the nonshaved group, there were 89 procedures (80 cases), compared with 136 procedures (123 cases) in the shaved group. Surgical infection rates were 3.37% and 5.88%, respectively (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Nonshaved scalp preparation is recommended for nonemergency cranial neurosurgical procedures.

Post-traumatic hydrocephalus: experience in 17 consecutive cases.

BACKGROUND: Ventriculomegaly after head injury is one of controversial debate. Currently there is no definite way to distinguish post-traumatic hydrocephalus (PTH) from cerebral atrophy. The favourable outcome is only from CSF shunting in patients with true post-traumatic hydrocephalus, not hydrocephalus exvacuo. METHOD: 17 patients with post-traumatic hydrocephalus were retrospectively reviewed from January 1993 to February 1996 to determine risk factors and guidelines for the management of this problem. RESULTS: These 17 patients represented 1.6 per cent of the 1080 head-injured patients seen at Songklanagarind Hospital during that period. 385 patients were classified as severe head injury in whom 7 were complicated with post-traumatic hydrocephalus. Our study found a high incidence of correlation between PTH and decompressive craniectomy. The late effect of decompressive craniectomy may cause CSF blockage around the convexities and hydrocephalus. The diagnoses were based on clinical manifestations and CT scan appearances. The outcome was related closely to the initial GCS score and the method used for diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Post-traumatic hydrocephalus was 1.8 per cent in patients with severe head injury. Late neurological deterioration confirmed by CT scan findings was more useful than CT scan findings alone. CSF shunting was effective in patients with ventriculomegaly who had clinical signs and symptoms of increased intracranial pressure from post-traumatic hydrocephalus.

Traumatic hematomas of the posterior cranial fossa.

The objective of this study was to find out the result of treatment and the factors which can predict the outcome of traumatic hematomas of the posterior cranial fossa. Twenty two patients with traumatic hematomas of the posterior cranial fossa from 1,500 patients with traumatic intracranial hematomas were analyzed. There were fourteen male and eight female patients. The most common etiology was a motor vehicle accident. About 90 per cent of the patients had a direct injury to the occipital region. Ninety per cent of the patients had an occipital skull fracture or diastatic fracture of the lambdoid suture. The overall mortality rate was about 38 per cent. Patients having pure epidural hematoma had zero mortality. By contrast, patients suffering epidural hematoma with associated intracranial hematoma had 20 per cent mortality. Intracerebellar hematoma led to 60 per cent mortality. Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) before operation was used to predict the patients' outcome. Ninety per cent of the patients who had a GCS between 13 and 15 had a good recovery. By contrast, only 30 per cent of the patients who had a GCS below 9 had a good recovery. Statistical analysis showed that the GCS value of below 9 predicted the poor outcome for the patients.

Multiple intracranial aneurysms in Songklanagarind Hospital.

We retrospectively reviewed the 107 patients on whom direct surgery was performed for intracranial aneurysms between December 18, 1984 and July 25, 1996. The incidence of multiple intracranial aneurysms in our hospital is 6.5 per cent (7/107 cases). There were 16 aneurysms in 7 cases with multiple aneurysms. There were 2 and 5 patients with 3 and 2 aneurysms respectively. The most common site was at the junction of posterior communicating artery (PCoA) and internal carotid artery (ICA). The preoperative conditions of the patients were closely related to the operative results. We performed direct surgery on bilateral aneurysms by bifrontal approaches. There was no mortality.

The further surgical experiences in intracranial meningiomas at Songklanagarind Hospital.

Meningioma is a common benign intracranial tumor documented in many reports. We retrospectively reviewed 81 patients with a total of 84 meningiomas. There were 61 females and 20 males. Most patients were in the third to sixth decades of life. The most common presenting symptoms were headache and decreased visual acuity. Focal neurological deficits and signs of increased intracranial pressure were found in most patients. The three most common tumor locations were falx and parasagittal, sphenoid wing and convexity. Of the 84 meningiomas, 67 were completely resected and 17 were partially resected. Operative morbidities were accounted for by hemiparesis, cranial nerve palsy and infection. There was only one operative death in our series. 70 patients had normal and good results, 4 patients had severe disabilities and results were unknown in 6 patients. Recurrences were detected in 8 patients and 5 patients underwent surgery again with good results in 4 patients. Recurrences occurred in 3 patients with total and 5 patients with subtotal resections. The most significant factor for recurrence was the extent of tumor resection.

Direct approach to a traumatic intracavernous internal carotid artery aneurysm: a case report.

A traumatic intracavernous ICA aneurysm is a rare complication of head injury with skull base fracture. The hallmark of this condition is delayed, repeated, progressively worse and eventually fatal epistaxis. Inadequate treatment and delayed diagnosis are the major contributors to the high mortality. After epistaxis is controlled by anterior and posterior nasal packing, the patient should be investigated with carotid angiography and cross-flow study. In general, the acceptable procedure for this lesion is the trapping procedure by internal carotid artery ligation at the neck and clipping just proximal to the origin of the opthalmic artery, or by detachable balloon occlusion. However, Dolenc's technique of direct approach to cavernous sinus lesions makes it feasible to clip directly, as in this reported case.

Outcome and outcome prediction in acute subdural hematoma.

This study is based on a series of 109 consecutive head injured patients with the CT scan diagnosis of acute subdural hematoma. The overall outcome was assessed at 6 months after injury using the Glasgow Outcome Scale. By logistic regression analysis a small set of clinical features (the best sum Glasgow Coma Scale score within 24 h after admission, and pupillary inequality) was revealed as significant prognostic features. The method described allows bedside predictions in individual future cases.

Treatment of severely head injured patients with absence of basal cisterns on initial CT scans.

Sixty-four severely head injured patients with absence of basal cisterns on initial CT scan were studied from January 1986 to March 1989. None had good recovery at 6 months follow-up period. The result from logistic regression analysis pointed to the GCS at 24 hours following injury as an independent, significant outcome predictor. Conventional treatment is not suitable for these patients. Earlier and more aggressive therapy should improve their outcome.

Results of delayed operations for ruptured supratentorial aneurysms in 22 consecutive patients.

Twenty-two patients with surgically treated ruptured aneurysms were reviewed retrospectively regarding age, sex, aneurysm site distribution, clinical grading, rebleeding, timing of surgery and long term results. The most common aneurysm site was in the Anterior Communicating artery (44%). The mean time between aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and surgery was 20 days. There were 4 cases with intraoperative rupture. The outcome was favorable in 63.6 per cent after a mean follow-up of 21 months. The overall mortality rate was 22.7 per cent. The results may be improved by an early, well planned operation.

Liquid meal emptying in non-ulcer dyspepsia: a study in 22 Thai patients.

Twenty-four patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) were recruited for gastric emptying study of liquid meal before and after 1 week's treatment with domperidone (80 mg in 19, 40 mg in 2, dropout 1 and excluded 2). Delayed gastric emptying was found in 8 of 22 (36.36%). Clinical improvement was found in 11 patients after treatment. Gastric emptying improvement was found in 3 patients (2 without clinical improvement). No correlation was found between the clinical and gastric emptying improvement. (Fisher exact test p greater than 0.25). Impaired liquid emptying is common in NUD and domperidone improved clinical symptoms in 50 per cent of NUD in this study.

Management of head injury patients who talked and deteriorated.

Of 203 patients with severe head injuries admitted from January 1986 to May 1989 at Songklanagarind Hospital, 32 cases who initially talked prior to deteriorating to a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 7 or less within 48 hours after injury were identified. Many variables were analyzed to ascertain what might be responsible for the differences in outcome. The Glasgow Coma Scale score before neurosurgical intervention was identified, using the logistic regression model, as a significant prognostic predictor. Mortality rate was 40.6%, with two patients left in a vegetative state. Surgically correctable intracranial mass lesions occurred in 29 cases. The most important factors in salvaging these patients are rapid diagnosis and immediate surgical decompression before irreversible brain damage sets in.

Intramedullary spinal lipomas.

A rare case of intramedullary spinal lipoma in a 54-year-old female is reported. Pathogenesis and treatment are reviewed. Advance in surgical techniques and instruments may improve the operative procedure and result.