Historical Overview The various conflicts of the 20th century have given rise to the principles used in the management of penetrating brain injuries (PBIs). Injuries resulting from projectiles (e.g., gunshot wounds, knives) or blast injuries that cause bone fragments to…
Acknowledgment We would like to thank Micah Belzberg, MS4 for his kind assistance with figure creation. Introduction Scalp defects presenting to the neurosurgeon result from a variety of pathologies: trauma, brain neoplasms invading skull or scalp, postoperative bone/soft tissue infections,…
Introduction Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is one of the more commonly encountered pathologies in neurological surgery. Current trends indicate that CSDH are poised to become the most common intracranial diagnosis to require surgical intervention by year 2030, exceeding both primary…
Acknowledgment The authors and editors wish to thank Dr. Shirley I. Stiver for her contribution in the previous edition. Trauma to the skull base is a relatively common occurrence in patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and closed/open head injuries.…
Introduction Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant cause of death and disability, accounting for an estimated 235,000 hospitalizations and 50,000 deaths annually in the United States alone. While neurosurgeons play an integral role in the management of TBI, much…
Recent estimates of the magnitude of traumatic brain injury (TBI) suggest that each year nearly 3 million people sustain a head injury in the United States, with the majority of patients having a concussion or a mild TBI. According to…
Acknowledgments We want to express our appreciation to the medical illustrators Matthew Holt and Scott Barrows for their superb artistic work in the elaboration of Figs. 121.1 , 121.2 and 121.7 , as well as to Pere Lluis Leon, the…
The first clinical report of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) was published in 1967. These devices were the logical progression of the concept of gate control theory proposed by Wall and Melzack in 1965. This theory proposed that “control of pain…
A theory of pain transmission published in 1965 inspired researchers to develop a reversible, nondestructive pain therapy that relied on equipment adapted from cardiac pacemaker technology to deliver electrical stimulation to the spinal cord. The initial results of this therapy,…
Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank Mr. Mike Jensen for his valuable assistance with the medical illustrations of this chapter. The management of pharmaco-resistant pain of cancerous or noncancerous origin constitutes a rather challenging issue for the modern functional neurosurgeon.…