The Factors Associated with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Severity.

AIM: To evaluate the effects of factors, which are associated with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) prevalence, on disease severity. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 206 patients who were treated surgically for either moderate or severe CTS. Patients were grouped into moderate and severe CTS then compared regarding to age, gender, BMI, and presence of occupational factors as well as systemic diseases that are associated with CTS. RESULTS: Patients with moderate and severe CTS did not differ in age, gender, occupational risk factors, and most of the systemic diseases, including DM, hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, renal insufficiency, and folate deficiency. The severe CTS group had a significantly higher BMI than the moderate CTS group. Moreover, vitamin B12 deficiency was significantly more common in the severe CTS group than in the moderate CTS group. CONCLUSION: Patients with severe CTS are more inclined toward surgery than those with moderate CTS. Controlling BMI and preventing vitamin B12 deficiency may help keep alleviate complaints related to CTS with less invasive treatment modalities.

Possible Early Examples of Medical Tourism.

Health tourism has hundreds of years of history, most notably in visitors traveling to thermal baths. Medical tourism, a type of health tourism, has rapidly expanded in the last quarter century by patients travelling abroad to health centers for medical treatment. Because of lack of records in ancient times, the history of tourism for actual medical treatment is unknown. In Ottoman archives, medical treatment consent forms of patients were officially documented. We analyzed these existing records to identify foreign citizens who came to the Ottoman Empire for medical treatment. In our screening of Konya Ser'iye registration records, we found medical consent forms for three non-Ottoman foreign citizens. All three patients had the same medical illness and came to Konya for medical treatment. Therefore we emphasized that those patients searched for the name of doctor who was an authority on that illness. This study indicates that medical tourism may have occurred well before the 20th century.

Rosette-forming Glioneuronal Tumor: Rare Case Presented with Spontaneous Disappearance of Contrast Enhancement.

This report presents rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor (RGNT) of the tectum in a 24-year-old woman in whom spontaneous disappearance of contrast enhancement (CE) on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was observed during 9-year follow-up period before therapeutic intervention. MR imaging obtained 9 years ago when she first visited local hospital with headaches showed a mass of the brain stem with CE. Follow-up MR imaging showed disappearance of CE without tumor growth. Nine years later, she was admitted to our hospital with headache and nausea, due to obstructive hydrocephalus. She underwent endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) and tumor biopsy. Histological study revealed RGNT. To our knowledge, this is the first report presenting that the RGNT may show spontaneous disappearance of CE without tumor growth. It is unclear what this phenomenon means, however, knowledge of this phenomenon may be helpful for correct diagnosis and for follow up of RGNT.