Navigated Intraoperative Ultrasound Offers Effective and Efficient Real-Time Analysis of Intracranial Tumor Resection and Brain Shift.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Neuronavigation is a fundamental tool in the resection of intracranial tumors. However, it is limited by its calibration to preoperative neuroimaging, which loses accuracy intraoperatively after brain shift. Therefore, surgeons rely on anatomic landmarks or tools like intraoperative MRI to assess the extent of tumor resection (EOR) and update neuronavigation. Recent studies demonstrate that intraoperative ultrasound (iUS) provides point-of-care imaging without the cost or resource utilization of an intraoperative MRI, and advances in neuronavigation-guided iUS provide an opportunity for real-time imaging overlaid with neuronavigation to account for brain shift. We assessed the feasibility, efficacy, and benefits of navigated iUS to assess the EOR and restore stereotactic accuracy in neuronavigation after brain shift. METHODS: This prospective single-center study included patients presenting with intracranial tumors (gliomas, metastasis) to an academic medical center. Navigated iUS images were acquired preresection, midresection, and postresection. The EOR was determined by the surgeon intraoperatively and compared with the postoperative MRI report by an independent neuroradiologist. Outcome measures included time to perform the iUS sweep, time to process ultrasound images, and EOR predicted by the surgeon intraoperatively compared with the postoperative MRI. RESULTS: This study included 40 patients consisting of gliomas (n = 18 high-grade gliomas, n = 4 low-grade gliomas, n = 4 recurrent) and metastasis (n = 18). Navigated ultrasound sweeps were performed in all patients (n = 83) with a median time to perform of 5.5 seconds and a median image processing time of 29.9 seconds. There was 95% concordance between the surgeon's and neuroradiologist's determination of EOR using navigated iUS and postoperative MRI, respectively. The sensitivity was 100%, and the specificity was 94%. CONCLUSION: Navigated iUS was successfully used for EOR determination in glioma and metastasis resection. Incorporating navigated iUS into the surgical workflow is safe and efficient and provides a real-time assessment of EOR while accounting for brain shift in intracranial tumor surgeries.

International Hackathon as a Tool to Augment Education, Collaboration, and Innovation in Global Neurosurgery.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Health care providers' exposure to global surgical disparities is limited in current nursing and/or medical school curricula. For instance, global health is often associated with infectious diseases or maternal health without acknowledging the growing need for surgical care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We propose an international virtual hackathon based on neurosurgical patient cases in under-resourced settings as an educational tool to bring awareness to global surgical disparities and develop relationships among trainees in different countries. METHODS: Participants were recruited through email listservs, a social media campaign, and prize offerings. A 3-day virtual hackathon event was administered, which included workshops, mentorship, keynote panels, and pitch presentations to judges. Participants were presented with real patient cases and directed to solve a barrier to their care. Surveys assessed participants' backgrounds and event experience. The hackathon was executed through Zoom at Harvard Innovation Lab in Boston, MA, on March 25 to 27, 2022. Participants included medical students, with additional participants from business, engineering, or current health care workers. RESULTS: Three hundred seven applications were submitted for 100 spots. Participants included medical students, physicians, nurses, engineers, entrepreneurs, and undergraduates representing 25 countries and 82 cities. Fifty-one participants previously met a neurosurgeon, while 39 previously met a global health expert, with no difference between LMIC and high-income countries' respondents. Teams spent an average of 2.75 hours working with mentors, and 88% of postevent respondents said the event was "very" or "extremely conducive" to networking. Projects fell into 4 categories: access, language barriers, education and training, and resources. The winning team, which was interdisciplinary and international, developed an application that analyzes patient anatomy while performing physical therapy to facilitate remote care and clinical decision-making. CONCLUSION: An international virtual hackathon can be an educational tool to increase innovative ideas to address surgical disparities in LMICs and establish early collaborative relationships with medical trainees from different countries.

International Hackathon as a Tool to Augment Education, Collaboration, and Innovation in Global Neurosurgery.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Health care providers' exposure to global surgical disparities is limited in current nursing and/or medical school curricula. For instance, global health is often associated with infectious diseases or maternal health without acknowledging the growing need for surgical care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We propose an international virtual hackathon based on neurosurgical patient cases in under-resourced settings as an educational tool to bring awareness to global surgical disparities and develop relationships among trainees in different countries. METHODS: Participants were recruited through email listservs, a social media campaign, and prize offerings. A 3-day virtual hackathon event was administered, which included workshops, mentorship, keynote panels, and pitch presentations to judges. Participants were presented with real patient cases and directed to solve a barrier to their care. Surveys assessed participants' backgrounds and event experience. The hackathon was executed through Zoom at Harvard Innovation Lab in Boston, MA, on March 25 to 27, 2022. Participants included medical students, with additional participants from business, engineering, or current health care workers. RESULTS: Three hundred seven applications were submitted for 100 spots. Participants included medical students, physicians, nurses, engineers, entrepreneurs, and undergraduates representing 25 countries and 82 cities. Fifty-one participants previously met a neurosurgeon, while 39 previously met a global health expert, with no difference between LMIC and high-income countries' respondents. Teams spent an average of 2.75 hours working with mentors, and 88% of postevent respondents said the event was "very" or "extremely conducive" to networking. Projects fell into 4 categories: access, language barriers, education and training, and resources. The winning team, which was interdisciplinary and international, developed an application that analyzes patient anatomy while performing physical therapy to facilitate remote care and clinical decision-making. CONCLUSION: An international virtual hackathon can be an educational tool to increase innovative ideas to address surgical disparities in LMICs and establish early collaborative relationships with medical trainees from different countries.

Navigated Simultaneous Lateral Minimally Invasive Tubular and Posterior Mini-Open Access for Removal and Revision of Triangular Sacroiliac Joint Implants: A Technical Note.

BACKGROUND: Sacroiliac joint (SIJ) fusion, to treat back pain caused by SIJ dysfunction, can employ open or minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques and either cylindrical (screw-shaped) or triangular (wedge-shaped) implants. Fusion nonunion sometimes explains recurrent SIJ pain following fusion and occasionally requires hardware revision. MIS revision minimizes patient pain, infection, and disability, but due to the triangular implant size and form factor, implant removal can present challenges for MIS access during the explantation and achieving good bony purchase for reinstrumentation. Here, we report a prone single-position lateral MIS/posterior mini-open procedure for triangular-implant SIJ fusion revision. METHODS: The patient is a 72-year-old female who underwent right SIJ fusion for lower back and leg pain sustained after a fall 2 years prior but experienced recurrent pain over the subsequent 2 years, with imaging findings of right SIJ peri-hardware lucencies and diagnostic injections confirming persistent right-sided sacroiliitis. RESULTS: The patient underwent hardware removal using the lateral MIS incision with table-mounted tubular access and image-guided navigation to maintain exposure, plus simultaneous reinstrumentation using a navigated S2-alar-iliac screw and iliac bolt construct with connecting rod through the posterior mini-open incision made for the navigation reference frame spinous process clamp. CONCLUSIONS: The use of navigation and MIS access can significantly decrease the complexity of lateral hardware removal, and mini-open navigated screw-and-rod constructs offer reinstrumentation options accessible to surgeons unfamiliar with specialized posterior SIJ systems.

Neurological Surgery Residency Programs in the United States: A National Cross-Sectional Survey.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has approved 117 neurological surgery residency programs which develop and educate neurosurgical trainees. We present the current landscape of neurosurgical training in the United States by examining multiple aspects of neurological surgery residencies in the 2022-2023 academic year and investigate the impact of program structure on resident academic productivity. METHODS: Demographic data were collected from publicly available websites and reports from the National Resident Match Program. A 34-question survey was circulated by e-mail to program directors to assess multiple features of neurological surgery residency programs, including curricular structure, fellowship availability, recent program changes, graduation requirements, and resources supporting career development. Mean resident productivity by program was collected from the literature. RESULTS: Across all 117 programs, there was a median of 2.0 (range 1.0-4.0) resident positions per year and 1.0 (range 0.0-2.0) research/elective years. Programs offered a median of 1.0 (range 0.0-7.0) Committee on Advanced Subspecialty Training-accredited fellowships, with endovascular fellowships being most frequently offered (53.8%). The survey response rate was 75/117 (64.1%). Of survey respondents, the median number of clinical sites was 3.0 (range 1.0-6.0). Almost half of programs surveyed (46.7%) reported funding mechanisms for residents, including R25, T32, and other in-house grants. Residents received a median academic stipend of $1000 (range $0-$10 000) per year. Nearly all programs (93.3%) supported wellness activities for residents, which most frequently occurred quarterly (46.7%). Annual academic stipend size was the only significant predictor of resident academic productivity (R 2 = 0.17, P = .002). CONCLUSION: Neurological surgery residency programs successfully train the next generation of neurosurgeons focusing on education, clinical training, case numbers, and milestones. These programs offer trainees the chance to tailor their career trajectories within residency, creating a rewarding and personalized experience that aligns with their career aspirations.

Implication of nutritional status for adverse outcomes after surgery for metastatic spine tumors.

OBJECTIVE: Surgery for metastatic spinal tumors can have a substantial impact on patients' quality of life by alleviating pain, improving function, and correcting spinal instability when indicated. The decision to operate is difficult because many patients with cancer are frail. Studies have highlighted the importance of preoperative nutritional status assessments; however, little is known about which aspects of nutrition accurately inform clinical outcomes. This study investigates the interaction and prognostic importance of various nutritional and frailty measures in patients with spinal metastases. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of consecutive patients who underwent surgery for spinal metastases between 2014 and 2020 at the Massachusetts General Hospital was performed. Patients were stratified according to the New England Spinal Metastasis Score (NESMS). Frailty was assessed using the metastatic spinal tumor frailty index. Nutrition was assessed using the prognostic nutritional index (PNI), preoperative body mass index, albumin, albumin-to-globulin ratio, and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio. Outcomes included postoperative survival and complication rates, with focus on wound-related complications. RESULTS: This study included 154 individuals (39% female; mean [SD] age 63.23 [13.14] years). NESMS 0 and NESMS 3 demonstrated the highest proportions of severely frail patients (56.2%) and nonfrail patients (16.1%), respectively. Patients with normal nutritional status (albumin-to-globulin ratio and PNI) had a better prognosis than those with poor nutritional status when stratified by NESMS. Multivariable regression adjusted for NESMS and frailty showed that a PNI > 40.4 was significantly associated with decreased odds of 90-day complications (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.85-0.98). After accounting for age, sex, primary tumor pathology, physical function, nutritional status, and frailty, a preoperative nutrition consultation was associated with a decrease in postoperative wound-related complications (average marginal effect -5.00%; 95% CI -1.50% to -8.9%). CONCLUSIONS: The PNI was most predictive of complications and may be a key biomarker for risk stratification in the 90 days following surgery. Nutrition consultation was associated with a reduced risk of wound-related complications, attesting to the importance of this preoperative intervention. These findings suggest that nutrition plays an important role in the postsurgical course and should be considered when developing a treatment plan for spinal metastases.

Demographics, referral patterns, and outcome of patients with neural tube defects in southwestern Uganda.

OBJECTIVE: In Uganda, the burden of neural tube defects (NTDs) poses a serious neurosurgical and public health challenge; however, published data on this patient population are lacking. The authors sought to characterize the population of patients with NTDs, maternal characteristics, and referral patterns of these patients, and to quantify the burden of NTDs in southwestern Uganda. METHODS: A retrospective neurosurgical database at a referral hospital was reviewed to identify all patients with NTDs treated between August 2016 and May 2022. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the patient population and maternal risk factors. A Wilcoxon rank-sum test and chi-square test were used to determine the association between demographic variables and patient mortality. RESULTS: A total of 235 patients were identified (121 male, 52%). The median age at presentation was 2 days (IQR 1-8 days). A total of 87% of patients with NTDs presented with spina bifida (n = 204) and 31 presented with encephalocele (13%). The most common location of dysraphism was lumbosacral (n = 180, 88%). Of all patients, 80% were delivered vaginally (n = 188). Overall, 67% of patients were discharged (n = 156) and 10% died (n = 23). The median length of stay was 12 days (IQR 7-19 days). The median maternal age was 26 years (IQR 22-30 years). The majority of mothers received only primary education (n = 100, 43%). The majority of mothers reported prenatal folate use (n = 158, 67%) and regular antenatal care (n = 220, 94%), although only 23% underwent an antenatal ultrasound (n = 55). Mortality was associated with younger age at presentation (p = 0.01), need for blood transfusion (p = 0.016) and oxygen supplementation (p < 0.001), and maternal education level (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to describe the population of patients with NTDs and their mothers in southwestern Uganda. A prospective case-control study is necessary to identify unique demographic and genetic risk factors associated with NTDs in this region.