Supratentorial complications of infratentorial surgery are rare. In the last 3 years we have operated on 187 patients with infratentorial lesions and have observed an incidence of 3.7% of supratentorial haemorrhages. Postoperative intracranial air, as shown by early postoperative CT control, was encountered mainly in a subdural frontal location and within the interhemispheric fissure. We performed no surgical decompression of the air accumulation because of the lack of clinical symptoms. Predisposing factors for the development of supratentorial complications remote from the surgical area are hypertonia, female sex, brain atrophy and preoperative shunting procedures. Measures to avoid these complications are discussed.

Interstitial granulomatous dermatitis and arthritis (IGDA) is a rare disease entity with female predominance. The case of a 53-year-old woman with erythemas, plaques and nodules associated with polyarthritis is presented. She was treated with cyclosporin A, with improvement of the joint affliction and complete clearance of skin lesions. The differential diagnosis of IGDA is discussed briefly.

Aim of the study was to analyse the medical care situation of patients suffering from epistaxis in everyday clinical practice in ENT emergency departments. In the year 2009, 690 patients with 862 occurrences of epistaxis sought help in the 2 East Thuringian ENT emergency departments in Jena and Gera (60% male, average age: 60 years). The patients' characteristics were evaluated retrospectively with a focus on comorbidity, long-term medication and treatment measures. The incidence of epistaxis treatment in the ENT emergency departments was 121 28 per 100 000 habitants of East Thuringia. Die Inzidenz für die Epistaxisbehandlung in den Notfallambulanzen der Ostthüringer Kliniken lag bei 121 28 pro 100 000 Einwohner Ostthüringens The most common comorbidity was hypertension (68% of all patients). 27% of all patients were taking antiplatelet drugs and 19% anticoagulants. We identified the 3-fold combination of a medication with anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs (p=0.015), Morbus Osler (p=0.011) and thrombocytopaenia (p=0.009) as independent risk factors for recurrent epistaxis. The therapeutic measures the patients led to success rates of more than 90%. The actual ENT emergency treatment of epistaxis seems to be efficient. The escalation of anticoagulant long-term drug therapy has resulted in more admittance to the inpatient sector. More analyses of medical care situations and factors have to be carried out to develop a patient stratification for the daily clinical practice as well as a general guideline for the management of epistaxis.

In a consecutive series of 100 patients suffering from Chronic subdural haematomas, which were treated by burr-hole evacuation and closed external drainage, in 23 patients repeated operations became necessary. The reasons for further operations were: true recurrences in 11 cases, superimposed haematomas in five cases and haematomas on the opposite side in seven cases. All these patients were treated again by burr-hole evacuation and closed external drainage. In contrast to the common opinion craniotomy and removal of the membranes was not necessary in any case.

Two neurosurgical centers, Bologna (Italy) and Freiburg (FRG), have compared results obtained with stereotactic mesencephalotomy (SM; Bologna) and multiple thalamotomies (MT; Freiburg) in the surgical treatment of chronic cancer pain syndromes. In total, 161 patients were operated, 109 in Bologna and 52 in Freiburg. In SM the lesions were single and centered on the spinothalamic tract at the mesencephalic level, while in MT the lesions were multiple in the thalamic nuclei (ventrocaudal parvocellular nucleus, nucleus limitans, lamella medialis, centromedian nuclei). The following results emerged after 2–7 months'' follow-up: (1) in an antalgic sense, SM was much more beneficial, with 91 patients (83.5%) pain-free after the operation versus 27 patients (51.9%) who had only an attenuation of the pain syndrome after MT; (2) SM, compared to MT, is burdened by mortality and a higher morbidity [2 deaths (1.8%) vs. 0; 3 anesthesia dolorosa and 8 severe gaze palsies (10.1%) vs. only 1 case of permanent aphasia (1.9%)].

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