background developing controlled hypercarbia is a known scheme of lowering the suprasellar part of the adenoma in order to assist the surgeon, which acts through raising the icp and therefore the csf pressure. objectives the purpose of this study is to compare the effect of introducing a lumbar drain with that of controlled hypercapnia on the quality of transsphenoidal pituitary tumor resection...

Background: CSF leak during or after transsphenoidal surgery is the most common annoying complication that may lead to fatal meningitis. Objective: To define the effectiveness of the external CSF lumbar drain to stop the leak either inserted preoperative, immediate postoperative or delayed postoperative with the same figure of packing to the sella turcica and sphenoid sinus. Methods: We retrosp...

Background &Aim: The endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach has been widely employed as a treatment for pituitary adenomas and other parasellar tumors. However, the major concerns related to endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery include the risks of CSF leak post-operatively leading to morbidity and at times mortality due to severe meningitis. Several studies in the past have foun...

OBJECTIVES The infective potential of lumbar drainage is an important topic deserving particular study. The aetiology, incidence, and clinical findings associated with bacterial meningitis are described in patients having continuous lumbar CSF drainage to treat communicating hydrocephalus after subarachnoid haemorrhage or CSF leaks after traumatic dural rents. METHODS Retrospective review of ...

OBJECTIVE To measure the effect of routine perioperative lumbar drain placement during anterior skull base surgery on the frequency of: 1) tension pneumocephalus and 2) total intracranial complications. DESIGN Retrospective review of a series of patients (n = 161) who underwent the transglabellar/subcranial approach to lesions of the anterior skull base between December 1995 and November 2009...

Introduction: The management of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fistulae after skull base surgery or trauma is challenging for the neurosurgeons. Surgical exploration and repair is an option but it is an invasive procedure with possibility of failure to detect fistulae. Placement of lumbar drain has shown variable success rate in different studies. This study was conducted to determine the success of...

A 36-year-old woman was diagnosed with a sellar-suprasellar craniopharyngioma and underwent transsphenoidal resection of the tumor. A lumbar drain was placed to minimize intracranial pressure and was removed on postoperative day 6. On postoperative day 9, the patient began to leak cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from her right nostril. A second lumbar drain was placed. One day later, the patient deve...

Closed continuous lumbar subarachnoid drainage is an accepted strategy in the management of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks. Post lumbar drain haematoma as a complication has been reported in various planes including intraventricular, subdural, subarachnoid, intraparenchymal and spinal extradural locations, most often in patients receiving anticoagulants. Supratentorial extradural haematoma sec...

Objective] Recently, the effectiveness of closed wound drainage has been evaluated for various types of orthopedic surgery. Some studies showed insufficient evidence to support the routine use of a drain. In the current analysis, the efficacy of closed suction drainage in anterior spinal fusion for lumbar spinal tuberculosis was retrospectively evaluated. [Patients and Methods] Ninety-one conse...

BACKGROUND Thoracic disc surgery can lead to a life-threatening complication: intracranial hypotension due to a subarachnoid-pleural fistula. CASE DESCRIPTION We report a 63-year-old male with paraparesis due to multiple herniated thoracic discs, with compressive myelopathy. The patient required a circumferential procedure including a laminectomy/fusion followed by an anterior thoracic decomp...