Expedited chemoradiation after laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is feasible and safe in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

Background: High-grade gliomas (HGG) are incurable primary brain tumors. Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) has emerged as an alternative to surgery for select patients. Hyperthermia can improve the efficacy of radiation and chemotherapy.

Automated Analysis of Surface Roughness and Waviness in Vertebral Bodies by Computed Tomography: Implications for Device Design in Spine Surgery.

Objective: The interactions between interbody devices, corpectomy cages, and vertebral bodies are influenced by surface characteristics such as roughness and waviness, impacting fusion quality and patient outcomes. Understanding vertebral surface morphology is crucial for improving cage design and avoiding complications like subsidence, neural injury, and reoperation. This study aims to characterize the variability in vertebral morphology along the spine.

Anterior Versus Posterior and Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion for Spondylolisthesis: A Comparison of Radiographic, Clinical, and Patient Reported Outcomes.

Study DesignRetrospective Cohort Study.ObjectivesLumbar spinal fusion is an increasingly utilized surgery within the United States attributed to an aging population with an increasing prevalence of degenerative spinal disease. Primary approaches include anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) and posterior or transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF/TLIF), for which indications are preference driven.

Development of a unified and comprehensive definition of successful spinal fusion: a systematic review.

Objective: Spinal fusion is a commonly performed surgical procedure used to relieve pain, deformity, and instability of various spinal pathologies. Although there have been attempts to standardize spinal fusion assessment radiologically, there is currently no unified definition that also considers clinical symptomology. This review attempts to create a more holistic and standardized definition of spinal fusion.

Multilevel Laminoplasty for CSM: Is C3 Laminectomy Better Than C3 Laminoplasty at the Superior Vertebra?

Introduction: In a multilevel cervical laminoplasty operation for patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), a partial or complete C3 laminectomy may be performed at the upper level instead of a C3 plated laminoplasty. It is unknown whether C3 technique above the laminoplasty affects loss of cervical lordosis or range of motion.

Methods: Patients undergoing multilevel laminoplasty of the cervical spine (C3-C6/C7) at a single institution were retrospectively reviewed.

A Pilot Remote Curriculum to Enhance Resident and Medical Student Understanding of Machine Learning in Healthcare.

Background: Despite the expanding role of machine learning (ML) in health care and patient expectations for clinicians to understand ML-based tools, few for-credit curricula exist specifically for neurosurgical trainees to learn basic principles and implications of ML for medical research and clinical practice. We implemented a novel, remotely delivered curriculum designed to develop literacy in ML for neurosurgical trainees.

Methods: A 4-week pilot medical elective was designed specifically for trainees to build literacy in basic ML concepts.

Surgical classification using natural language processing of informed consent forms in spine surgery.

Objective: In clinical spine surgery research, manually reviewing surgical forms to categorize patients by their surgical characteristics is a crucial yet time-consuming task. Natural language processing (NLP) is a machine learning tool used to adaptively parse and categorize important features from text. These systems function by training on a large, labeled data set in which feature importance is learned prior to encountering a previously unseen data set.

Leveraging published randomized controlled trials to inform clinical trial design: a simulation-based study of laminectomy versus laminectomy and fusion.

Objective: The US-based Spinal Laminectomy versus Instrumented Pedicle Screw (SLIP) trial reported improvement in disability following laminectomy with fusion versus laminectomy alone for patients with lumbar spondylolisthesis. Despite using similar methods, a concurrent Swedish trial investigating the same question did not reach the same conclusion. The authors performed a simulation-based analysis to elucidate potential causes of these divergent results.

Investigation of the Feasibility of Ventricular Delivery of Resveratrol to the Microelectrode Tissue Interface.

(1) Background: Intracortical microelectrodes (IMEs) are essential to basic brain research and clinical brain-machine interfacing applications. However, the foreign body response to IMEs results in chronic inflammation and an increase in levels of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS). The current study builds on our previous work, by testing a new delivery method of a promising antioxidant as a means of extending intracortical microelectrodes performance.

Investigating the Association between Motor Function, Neuroinflammation, and Recording Metrics in the Performance of Intracortical Microelectrode Implanted in Motor Cortex.

Long-term reliability of intracortical microelectrodes remains a challenge for increased acceptance and deployment. There are conflicting reports comparing measurements associated with recording quality with postmortem histology, in attempts to better understand failure of intracortical microelectrodes (IMEs). Our group has recently introduced the assessment of motor behavior tasks as another metric to evaluate the effects of IME implantation.

Toward Standardization of Electrophysiology and Computational Tissue Strain in Rodent Intracortical Microelectrode Models.

Progress has been made in the field of neural interfacing using both mouse and rat models, yet standardization of these models' interchangeability has yet to be established. The mouse model allows for transgenic, optogenetic, and advanced imaging modalities which can be used to examine the biological impact and failure mechanisms associated with the neural implant itself. The ability to directly compare electrophysiological data between mouse and rat models is crucial for the development and assessment of neural interfaces.

Nano-Architectural Approaches for Improved Intracortical Interface Technologies.

Intracortical microelectrodes (IME) are neural devices that initially were designed to function as neuroscience tools to enable researchers to understand the nervous system. Over the years, technology that aids interfacing with the nervous system has allowed the ability to treat patients with a wide range of neurological injuries and diseases. Despite the substantial success that has been demonstrated using IME in neural interface applications, these implants eventually fail due to loss of quality recording signals.

Implantation of Neural Probes in the Brain Elicits Oxidative Stress.

Clinical implantation of intracortical microelectrodes has been hindered, at least in part, by the perpetual inflammatory response occurring after device implantation. The neuroinflammatory response observed after device implantation has been correlated to oxidative stress that occurs due to neurological injury and disease. However, there has yet to be a definitive link of oxidative stress to intracortical microelectrode implantation.

Status Epilepticus due to Intraperitoneal Injection of Vehicle Containing Propylene Glycol in Sprague Dawley Rats.

Published reports of status epilepticus due to intraperitoneal injection containing propylene glycol in rats are sparse. In fact, there are no reports specifying a maximum safe dose of propylene glycol through intraperitoneal administration. We report here a case of unexpected seizures in Sprague Dawley rats after receiving an intraperitoneal injection containing propylene glycol.