SummaryThis paper is based on a study of sixty cases of cranio-cerebral erosion treated in the Department of Neurosurgery. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi during the last 20 years. This constitutes the largest series, so far reported from anywhere. It has provided a unique opportunity to get a comprehensive picture of the clinical and radiological features of this lesion, as also their evolution. These have been Correlated with the findings at surgery and histopathological observations. The study highlights the incidence, pattern and severity of the brain damage associated with this lesion. Evidence has been provided for the progressive nature of the brain damage, not adequately emphasized in the existing literature. Pathogenesis of this brain damage has been discussed. The role of surgery in the management of this lesion has been outlined. Emphasis on the osseous changes or the "leptomeningeal cyst" (not really a consistent or important feature) in most publications on this subject has tended to minimize the significance of the brain damage in this condition. The authors suggest that the latter is far more important and therefore, recommend the use of nomenclature which takes this into account.Keywords: Cranio-cerebral erosion; growing skull fracture; leptomeningeal cyst; sequelae of head injury; head injury in infancy and childhood.
This study comprises 60 cases of tuberculous meningitis including both adults and children. Only three cases showed a normal scan. Severe hydrocephalus was present in 87.09% children and only 12.09% adults. The incidence of hydrocephalus increased with the duration of the illness and decreased with age. Exudates in the basal cisterns were graded from mild to severe, the latter being seen only in children. Visible infarcts were shown in 28.33% of cases, 10% showed associated parenchymal tuberculomas. Serial follow-up scans indicate that patients with non-enhancing exudates have a good prognosis when medically treated, whereas in those cases with enhancing exudates the prognosis is poor in spite of medical treatment and surgical shunting; they either succumb to their illness or are left with irreversible sequelae. CT has proved sensitive in both the diagnosis and prognosis in clinically suspected tuberculous meningitis.
CT appearances of 25 tuberculomas are described. The image morphology of the immature forms is small discs and rings with massive oedema. The mature forms appear as large rings or lobulated masses. The large rings enclose a mass, a little more dense than brain; the lobulated masses represent coalesced small discs and rings forming a large tuberculoma. These images are consistent and repetitive in tuberculomas. The larger masses form the surgical group and need excision; the smaller masses form the medical group and have had successful medical therapy with serial scans to document healing. The presence of multiple masses is recorded in 55% of the cases.
The authors report data collected prospectively on 551 cases of head injury in New Delhi, India, and 822 cases in Charlottesville, Virginia. The mortality rate, adjusted for initial severity of injury, was 11.0% in New Delhi versus 7.2% in Charlottesville (p less than 0.02). There was a striking similarity in mortality rates at both centers when comparing patients with the least severe head injuries and those with the most severe injuries according to the motor score of the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS M). However, in the group with an abnormal but purposeful motor response (GCS M = 5), the mortality rate was 12.5% in New Delhi versus 4.8% in Charlottesville (p less than 0.01). The relative absence of prehospital emergency care and the delay in admission after head injury in New Delhi are cited as two possible causes for the differences in mortality rates in this subgroup of patients with "moderate" head injuries.
It is not generally appreciated that intractable seizures involving the face area are amenable to surgical treatment. Twenty patients with onset of sensorimotor seizures in the face area of the pre- and postcentral gyri have been studied and surgically treated since 1948. Seizures started in the face, tongue, or throat, followed by diverse patterns depending on spread of seizure activity. Two patients had epilepsia partialis continua; 6 had either tonic or atonic drop attacks. All patients had pre- and postcentral face area resections, 12 in the dominant hemisphere. In addition, 3 had more extensive postcentral removal, 7 had temporal lobe, and 4 had small separate or contiguous frontal or parietal resection. Because the seizures were not sufficiently reduced by the first operation, 6 required reoperation; 4 of these patients had residual epileptiform activity on electrocorticogram (ECoG) after the first resection. Three patients had new neurologic signs that did not return to the preoperative level, but in 2 of them the deficit related mainly to higher resection in the central area. All but 2 of these 20 patients had at least moderate seizure reduction. Corticectomy can be performed for treatment of seizures arising in the lower central area and usually does not lead to significant permanent neurologic deficit.
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