Fully Endoscopic Retrosigmoid Approach for Cerebellopontine Angle Tumors.

Background: Fully endoscopic or endoscope-controlled approaches are essentially keyhole approaches in which rigid endoscopes are the sole visualization tools used during the whole procedure. At the early attempts of endoscope-assisted cranial surgery, it was noted that rigid endoscopes enabled overcoming the problem of suboptimal visualization when small exposures are used. The technical specifications and design of the currently available rigid endoscopes are associated with a group of unique features that define the endoscopic view and lay the basis for its superiority over the microscopic view during brain surgery.

Fully Endoscopic Supraorbital Approach for Anterior Cranial Base Meningiomas.

Background: Anterior cranial base meningiomas include those meningiomas originating from the tuberculum sellae, the planum sphenoidale, or the olfactory groove, with surgical excision being the main treatment modality for these tumors. Conventional microscopic and endoscope-assisted versions of the supraorbital keyhole approach via an eyebrow incision emerged into minimally invasive options that are frequently utilized nowadays for treating these tumors. At the early attempts of endoscope-assisted cranial surgery, it was noted that rigid endoscopes enabled overcoming the problem of suboptimal visualization when small exposures are used.

Comparative Optics of the Surgical Microscope and Rigid Endoscopes in Neurosurgery.

This chapter is intended to provide a brief overview of the optics of surgical microscopes and rigid endoscopes, with the aim of providing the reader with the principles dictating the nature of surgical visualization when either of the visual control systems is used. It is not by any means geared toward elaborating on the detailed optical physics of these systems, which is beyond the scope and objective of this chapter.

Purely endoscopic and endoscope-assisted approaches to lesions of the third ventricle in pediatric age-a technical collection.

Background: One of the main difficulties in third ventricle surgery is its deep and central location within the brain, surrounded by many eloquent neurovascular structures. Such anatomical environment obviously makes it very hard to safely approach and excise lesions in there.

Methods: The introduction of the surgical microscope into the neurosurgical field undoubtedly played an important and pivotal role in improving the surgical results and increasing the safety of operations in and around the third ventricle.

Isolated intracranial Rosai-Dorfman disease: report of two cases and a review of the literature.

Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) is a rare but well-recognized idiopathic histioproliferative disease affecting the systemic lymph nodes. It is characterized by an unusual proliferation of histiocytic cells. Intracranial localization is a rare manifestation of RDD.

Computed tomographic evaluation of the distance between the medial border of longus colli muscle and foramen transversarium in ventral approaches to the subaxial cervical spine.

Aim: Iatrogenic vertebral artery (VA) injury during ventral approaches to the subaxial cervical spine ranges from 0.22% to 2.77%.