Hypothermia has been employed during the past 30 years as a therapeutic modality for spinal cord injury (SCI) in animal models and in humans. With our newly developed rat cervical model of contusive SCI, we investigated the therapeutic efficacy of transient systemic hypothermia (beginning 5 minutes post-injury for 4 hours, 33 degrees C) with gradual rewarming (1 degrees C per hour) for the preservation of tissue and the prevention of injury-induced functional loss. A moderate cervical displacement SCI was performed in female Fischer rats, and behavior was assessed for 8 weeks. Histologically, the application of hypothermia after SCI resulted in significant increases in normal-appearing white matter (31% increase) and gray matter (38% increase) volumes, greater preservation (four-fold) of neurons immediately rostral and caudal to the injury epicenter, and enhanced sparing of axonal connections from retrogradely traced reticulospinal neurons (127% increase) compared with normothermic controls. Functionally, a faster rate of recovery in open field locomotor ability (BBB score, weeks 1-3) and improved forelimb strength, as measured by both weight-supported hanging (43% increase) and grip strength (25% increase), were obtained after hypothermia. The current study demonstrates that mild systemic hypothermia is effective for retarding tissue damage and reducing neurological deficits following a clinically relevant contusive cervical SCI.

Objective : The present study analyzed the risk factors, prevalence and clinical results following revision surgery for adjacent segment degeneration (ASD) in patients who had undergone lumbar fusion. Methods : Over an 8-year period, we performed posterior lumbar fusion in 81 patients. Patients were followed a minimum of 2 years (mean 5.5 years). During that time, 9 patients required revision surgery due to ASD development. Four patients underwent autogenous posterolateral arthrodesis and extended transpedicle screw fixation, 4 patients underwent decompressive laminectomy and interspinous device implantation, and 1 patient underwent simple decompression. Results : Of the 9 of patients with clinical ASD, 33.3% (3 of 9) of patients did not have radiographic ASD on plain radiographs. Following revision surgery, the clinical results were excellent or good in 8 patients (88.9%). Age > 50 years at primary surgery was a significant risk factor for ASD development, while number of fusion levels, initial diagnosis and type of fusion were not. Conclusion : The incidence of ASD development after lumbar surgery was 11.1% (9 of 81) in this study. Age greater than 50 was the statistically significant risk factor for ASD development. Similar successful clinical outcomes were observed after extended fusion with wide decompression or after interspinous device implantation. Given the latter procedure is less invasive, the findings suggest it may be considered a treatment alternative in selected cases but it needs further study.

Neurocutaneous melanosis (NCM) associated with Dandy-Walker malformation is a very rare congenital neurodysplasia with the same origin. Primary intracranial melanocytic and dermoid tumors are also benign congenital lesions that usually arise from the leptomeninges and are formed by the inclusion of cutaneous ectoderm at the time of neural tube closure. The authors describe a patient with coexisting intracranial meningeal melanocytoma, NCM with Dandy-Walker malformation, and intraventricular dermoid tumor.

No abstract