Backround:Practical scenario in trauma neurosurgery comes with multiple challenges and limitations. It accounts for the maximum mortality in neurosurgery and yet the developing countries are still ill-equipped even for an emergency set-up for primary management of traumatic brain injuries. The evolution of modern neurosurgical techniques in traumatic brain injury has been ongoing for the last two centuries. However, it has always been a challenge to obtain a satisfactory clinical outcome, especially those following severe traumatic brain injuries. Other than the well-established procedures such as decompressive hemicraniectomy and those for acute and or chronic subdural hematomas and depressed skull fractures, contusions etcetera newer avenues for development of surgical techniques where indicated have been minimal. We are advocating a replacement for decompressive hemicranictomy, which would have the same indications as decompressive hemicraniectomy. The results of this procedure has been compared with the results of decompressive hemicraniectomy done in our institution and elsewhere and has been proven beyond doubts to be superior to decompressive hemicraniectomy. This procedure is elegant and can replace decompressive hemicraniectomy because of low morbidity and mortality. However, there is a steep learning curve and the microscope has to be used.Materials and Methods:Based on the clinical experience and observation of acute neurosurgical service in tertiary medical centers in a developing country, the procedure of cisternostomy in the management of trauma neurosurgery have been elucidated in the current study. The study proposes to apply the principles of microvascular surgery and skull base surgery in selected cases of severe traumatic brain injuries, thus replacing decompressive hemicraniectomy as the primary modality of treatment for indicated cases.Conclusion:Extensive opening of cisterns making use of skull base techniques to approach them in a swollen brain is a better option to decompressive hemicraniectomy for the same indications.

Cisternostomy is defined as opening the basal cisterns to atmospheric pressure. This technique helps to reduce the intracranial pressure in severe head trauma as well as other conditions when the so-called sudden “brain swelling” troubles the surgeon.We elaborated the surgical anatomy of this procedure as well as the proposed physiology of how cisternostomy works. This novel technique may change the current trends in neurosurgery.

PurposeCT plays a crucial role in the early assessment of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Marshall and Rotterdam are the mostly used scoring systems, in which CT findings are grouped differently. We sought to determine the values of the scoring system and initial CT findings in predicting the death at hospital discharge (early death) in patients with TBI.MethodsThere were consecutive 634 traumatic neurosurgical patients with mild-to-severe TBI admitted to the emergency department of College of Medical Sciences. Their initial CT and status at hospital discharge (dead or alive) were reviewed, and both CT scores were calculated. We examined whether each score is related to early death; compared the two scoring systems' performance in predicting early death, and identified the CT findings that are independent predictors for early death.ResultsBoth imaging score (Marshall) and clinical score (Rotterdam) can be used to reliably predict mortality in patients with acute traumatic brain injury with high prognostic accuracy. Other specific CT characteristics that can be used to predict early mortality are traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage, midline shift and status of the peri-mesencephalic cisterns.ConclusionsMarshall CT classification has strong predictive power, but greater discrimination can be obtained if the individual CT parameters underlying the CT classification are included in a prognostic model as in Rotterdam score. Consequently, for prognostic purposes, we recommend the use of individual characteristics rather than the CT classification. Performance of CT models for predicting outcome in TBI can be significantly improved by including more details of variables and by adding other variables to the models.

This is a case report of a neurologically intact patient following posttraumatic cervical spondyloptosis. We discuss the disease, management protocol and some surgical nuances to prevent any damage to the cord during different stages of its treatment.

Objective: Anterior odontoid screw fixation for type II odontoid fracture is the ideal management option. However in the context of unavailability of an O-arm or neuro-navigation and poor images from the available C-arm may be an obstacle to ideal trajectory and placement of the odontoid screw. We herein detail  our surgical technique so as to ensure a correct trajectory and subsequent good fusion in Type II odontoid fractures. This may be advantageous  in clinical set ups lacking state of the art facilities.  Methods and Results: In this cohort study we included 15 consecutive patients who underwent anterior odontoid screw placement. We routinely dissect the longus colli to completely visualize the entire width of C3 body. We then perform a median C2-C3 disectomy followed by creating a gutter in the superior end of C3 body. We then guide the Kirchsner (K) wire purchasing adequate anterior cortex of C2. Rest of the procedure follows the similar steps as described for odontoid screw placement. We achieved 100% correct trajectory and screw placement in our study. There were no instances of screw break out, pull out or nonunion. There was one patient mortality following myocardial infarction in our study. Conclusion: Preoperative imaging details, proper patient positioning, meticulous dissection, thorough anatomical knowledge and few added surgical nuances are the cornerstones in ideal odontoid screw placement. This may be pivotal in managing  patients in developing nations having rudimentary neurosurgical set up.

Background:Glasgow Coma Scale has been a long sought model to classify patients with head injury. However, the major limitation of the score is its assessment in the patients who are either sedated or under the influence of drugs or intubated for airway protection. The rational approach for prognostication of such patients is the utility of scoring system based on the morphological criteria based on radiological imaging. Among the current armamentarium, a scoring system based on computed tomography (CT) imaging holds the greatest promise in conquering our conquest for the same.Methods:We included a total of 634 consecutive neurosurgical trauma patients in this series, who presented with mild-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) from January 2013 to April 2014 at a tertiary care center in rural Nepal. All pertinent medical records (including all available imaging studies) were reviewed by the neurosurgical consultant and the radiologist on call. Patients’ worst CT image scores and their outcome at 30 days were assessed and recorded. We then assessed their independent performance in predicting the mortality and also tried to seek the individual variables that had significant interplay for determining the same.Results:Both imaging score (Marshall) and clinical score (Rotterdam) can be used to reliably predict mortality in patients with acute TBI with high prognostic accuracy. Other specific CT characteristics that can be used to predict early mortality are traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage, midline shift, and status of the peri-mesencephalic cisterns.Conclusion:We demonstrated in this cohort that though the Marshall score has the high predictive power to determine the mortality, better discrimination could be sought through the application of the Rotterdam score that encompasses various individual CT parameters. We thereby recommend the use of such comprehensive prognostic model so as to augment our predictive power for properly dichotomizing the prognosis of the patients with TBI. In the future, it will therefore be important to develop prognostic models that are applicable for the majority of patients in the world they live in, and not just a privileged few who can use resources not necessarily representative of their societal environment.

Currently, we are facing a global public health emergency, after an exponential outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. It began its foothold from the Wuhan province in China on December 26, 2019, 1 and within a very short time span, it was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, by the World Health Organization (WHO). A few weeks ago, the outbreak mainly involved Italy, starting from Lombardy, the region with one of the highest health resources in the country. The first case was recorded on February 18, 2020, and since then the exponential growth has greatly increased surpassing the China cases (81,669 cases). In Italy, according to worldometer (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/italy/), a website tracking COVID-19 cases, the total number of positive COVID cases are 124,632 with 15,362 deaths and 20,996 recovered patients (effective date as of April 5, 2020). In a short time, Italy has been

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