A 54-year-old woman was admitted to hospital for hypotension and anemia which was due to intermittent hemorrhage from a lumbar drain. She had undergone open nephrectomy ten days earlier in another hospital for the right dysfunctional kidney with staghorn calculi. Ultrasound in our hospital showed a right retroperitoneal hematoma. Surgical exploration was performed twice whereby the hematoma was...

Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are the main pathogens causing hospital-acquired external-ventricular-drain- (EVD-) and lumbar-drain- (LD-) associated meningitis and ventriculitis. The treatment of these infections can be challenging and may require combination of intraventricular and intravenous administration of antibiotics. Limited animal data demonstrate rapid daptomycin bactericida...

OBJECTIVES There are currently no data available on drain associated infection occurrence related to the number of drainage days (DD), and thus drain associated infection rates. Therefore, a prospective surveillance study was conducted to determine drain associated infection rates and DD of hospital acquired external ventricular drain (EVD) and lumbar drain (LD) associated meningitis/ventriculi...

INTRODUCTION The dural tear is a dreaded complication of lumbar surgery. HYPOTHESIS Our management protocol has made it possible to deal with this problem effectively. MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective review of 1359 patients operated between 2000 and 2010. In the event of dural tear, a therapeutic protocol was applied: suturing the dural wound if possible. A collagen patch lined with a l...

Atlantooccipital dislocation can be complicated by a traumatic durotomy that may lead to the rare development of a retropharyngeal pseudomeningocele. To our knowledge this has been reported only five times previously. We present the case of a 60-year-old man involved in a motor vehicle accident who suffered an atlantooccipital dislocation and C5-C6 three-column injury. A unique MRI image of a d...

Aim of this report is to describe the long-term results of endoscopic endonasal repair of cerebrospinal fluid leak using a septal mucoperichondrial graft. A case series of 52 patients operated for cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea between 1990 and 2006 is presented. All patients underwent surgical treatment for endoscopic endonasal closure of a cerebrospinal fluid leak using a septal mucoperichond...

Background Lateral sphenoid encephaloceles present a surgical challenge. These encephaloceles may be difficult to access given their lateral location and proximity to the neural and vascular structures of the sphenoid floor, pterygopalatine fossa, and lateral and superior sphenoid walls. Additionally, many patients have idiopathic intracranial hypertension, increasing the risk of recurrence. Wh...

Objectives To review the safety and efficacy of surgical management for spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks of the anterior and lateral skull base. Data Sources A systematic review of English articles using MEDLINE. Review Methods Search terms included spontaneous, CSF, cerebrospinal fluid, endoscopic, middle fossa, transmastoid, leak, rhinorrhea. Independent extraction of articles ...