The glossopharyngeal neuralgia (GPN) constitutes approximately 0.2-1.3% of all facial pain syndromes. The GPN is a syndrome of neuropathic pain characterized by paroxysmal pain episodes localized in the posterior tongue, tonsil, throat, or external ear canal. The first-line treatment is pharmacological. Patients who are refractory to medical therapy can be treated surgically with microvascular ...

Direct anterior approach to the cervicothoracic spine (C7-T4) poses a technical challenge in neurosurgery, due to the presence of important neurovascular structures anterior to the cervicothoracic junction (CTJ). Median Sternotomy approach is a surgical option that allows for direct anterior exposure of the lower cervical and upper thoracic vertebrae. We report the first case from Ghana, West A...

Arthroscopic shoulder surgery is considered a safe and effective method of treating a variety of shoulder pathologies and is associated with a low complication rate. The type and rate of complications can vary, depending on the procedure, positioning, surgical time, and anesthesia. Fortunately, neurovascular injuries occur infrequently. Numerous studies have described the proximity of neurovasc...

-Neurovascular contact of the left rostral ventrolateral medulla has been implicated in the pathogenesis of "essential" hypertension, and recent intervention studies suggest that surgical decompression of the ventrolateral medulla lowers blood pressure in these patients. We assessed the prevalence of this vascular anomaly in patients with essential hypertension by using an advanced MRI techniqu...

AIM To evaluate the utility of 3D-magnetic resonance cisternography(MRC) of posterior cranial fossa in visualizing trigeminal neurovascular compression in patients with trigeminal neuralgia. MATERIAL AND METHODS 146 consecutive patients in the period from June 2010 to July 2011 in our institute diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia underwent MRC on the posterior cranial fossa. MR devices used f...

Background Endoscopic endonasal surgery (EES) of the skull base often requires extensive bone work in proximity to critical neurovascular structures. Objective To demonstrate the application of an ultrasonic bone curette during EES. Methods Ten patients with skull base lesions underwent EES from September 2011 to April 2012 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Most of the bone work w...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE A minority of patients who undergo microvascular decompression for hemifacial spasm do not improve after the first operation. We sought to determine the most common locations of unaddressed neurovascular contact in patients with persistent or recurrent hemifacial spasm despite prior microvascular decompression. MATERIALS AND METHODS Eighteen patients with a history of a...

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a sudden, severe, brief, stabbing and recurrent pain within one or more branches of the trigeminal nerve. Although multiple mechanism involving peripheral pathologies at root (compression or traction), dysfunctions of brain stem, basal ganglion and cortical pain modulatory mechanisms could have role, neurovascular conflict (NCV) is most accepted theory. Patients wit...

BACKGROUND We introduce a method of noninvasive topographical analysis of the neurovascular relationships of the glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX) by three-dimensional (3D) visualization. Patients with glossopharyngeal neuralgia (GN) resulting from neurovascular compression (NVC) were studied. METHODS 15 patients with GN were prospectively examined with 3D visualization using high-resolution mag...