Because of its noninvasive, rigid, reliable, and reproducible connection to the patient's head, the VBH vacuum-affixed mouthpiece grants the registration device an accuracy comparable to invasive fiducial markers.

On the long-term, decompressive laminectomy in selected octogenarians results in decreased disability, decline of analgesics usage, and increased quality of life.

No abstract

The quality of life impairments in most patients after tumour resection can be classified as mild to moderate. However, other disease and age effects are difficult to distinguish without a control group. The IHD(NS) correlated well with the NHP questionnaire.

No abstract

No abstract

Objective: To undertake a prospective study of the long term neuropsychological outcome in patients with late onset idiopathic aqueduct stenosis (LIAS) after endoscopic third ventriculostomy. Methods: Six patients with LIAS were evaluated pre-and postoperatively using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and standardised psychometric testing procedures. Endoscopic third ventriculostomy was done using standard surgical techniques. The mean long term follow up was 81.2 weeks. Results: Preoperatively, all patients had cognitive impairment, four of them showing deficits in several cognitive domains. After endoscopic third ventriculostomy, all patients improved clinically and had ventricular size reduction on MRI. Postoperative neuropsychological testing showed that five patients achieved normal or near normal cognitive functions, and one improved moderately. Conclusions: Endoscopic third ventriculostomy caused a substantial improvement in the neuropsychological deficit of LIAS patients. This was also true for patients with enlarged ventricles that might be diagnosed radiologically as "arrested hydrocephalus."

Objectives: Subcortical lesions in the sensorimotor strip are often considered to be inoperable. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of a combined approach for surgery in this region, aided by a robotic neuronavigation system under electrophysiological control. Methods: In a prospective study on 10 patients, space occupying lesions in the sensorimotor central area were removed using the Surgiscope® robotic navigation system and the Nicolet Viking IV® electrophysiological system. Results: Precise tumour localisation with the neuronavigation system and the information on the patient's cortical motor distribution obtained by bipolar cortical stimulation led to postoperative improvement in motor function in all but one patient. Seven of the patients had focal, defined pathology (four metastases; two cavernoma; one aspergilloma). Conclusion: Due to the implementation of two recent technologies, surgery of lesions in the subcortical sensorimotor region can be performed with greater confidence.