Brain & Spine Surgery
Researchers at the University of Calgary say a new treatment plan for an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma is showing promise.
A combination of two drugs increased the lifespan of animals in test trials by 30 per cent, according to researchers at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute.
A study published in Spine examines how surgeon specialty impacts elective spine surgery outcomes.
The researchers analyzed data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project Database. There were 50,361 patients included in the study. Neurosurgeons performed surgery on 66 percent; the remaining were treated by an orthopedic surgeon.
A good night’s sleep leads to greater consolidation of a newly learned motor task than performing the same task not followed by sleep, new research shows.
“I think sleep has always intrigued a lot of people because not everyone even today believes sleep contributes to useful active processing in the brain,” Karen Debas, PhD, neuropsychologist, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, told Medscape Medical News.
“So the fact that we found sleep contributes to the consolidation of memory is important and to prove that it is doing so is to understand the mechanisms that are taking place during sleep.”
After several negative trials, the possibility of treating epilepsy with fish oil has seen a glimmer of hope with a new randomized trial suggesting a significant benefit with a lower dose than has previously been tested.
The study, published online September 9 in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 9 and conducted by a team led by Christopher M. DeGiorgio, MD, Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California, showed a significant reduction in seizure frequency with the low-dose but not the high-dose treatment vs placebo.
Gene therapy to protect blood stem cells from chemotherapy allows more intensive treatment of patients with glioblastoma, researchers say.
“We developed a strategy to successfully shield the marrow and blood cells and thus patients can now get this drug combination with benzylguanine and temozolomide while the marrow and blood cells are protected and shielded,” Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle told Reuters Health by email.
“MGMT (methylguanine methyltransferase) in the tumor will inactivate the chemotherapy and thus make the tumor insensitive to chemotherapy,” Dr. Kiem explained. “We can reverse this by disabling MGMT and making the tumor again sensitive to temozolomide using a drug called benzylguanine. Unfortunately disabling MGMT in blood and marrow cells makes them also more sensitive to temozolomide causing low blood counts and preventing the use of this approach.”
Data Presented at IMAST shows over 99 percent accuracy when placing screws with Mazor Robotics Renaissance® Guidance System
ORLANDO, Fla., July 17, 2014 – Mazor Robotics, Ltd. (TASE: MZOR; NASDAQ GM: MZOR), a developer of innovative guidance systems and complementary products, announced results of data being presented July 16-19 at the 21st International Meeting on Advanced Spine Techniques (IMAST) meeting in Valencia, Spain.
An e-poster entitled, Retrospective, Five-Center Analysis of 3,270 Pedicle Screws Placed with Robotic Guidance in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS), reports that 223 patients with AIS in five centers, had a total of 3,270 pedicle screws placed using the Renaissance system with over 99 percent accuracy.
Two novel, noninvasive, and relatively simple eye tests show promise as potential screening tools for early Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Preliminary results from 2 studies presented here at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2014 show that beta-amyloid detected in the eyes significantly correlated with the burden of beta-amyloid in the brain, allowing investigators to accurately identify individuals with AD.
In the first study, researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, used curcumin fluorescence imaging to highlight beta-amyloid in the retina and correlated these results using Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging findings in the brain.
Dr Lucia Zamorano President Michigan Brain and Spine Surgery Center was the Golf Chair at the SVDP Golf Outing at PLCC June 23 2014. All the proceeds of the event are to be used to send Children to Camp.
Medical Marijuana: A Growing Trend
The legalization of marijuana for medical use is sweeping the nation. It is currently legal in 21 states and the District of Columbia; legislatures in 14 additional states are considering bills to legalize it for medical use in 2014. However, The Drug Enforcement Agency still lists marijuana as a Schedule I substance, or having “no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse,” alongside some of the most dangerous drugs. The designation carries with it serious restrictions for research.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an extended-release combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen (Xartemis XR, Mallinckrodt plc), previously known as MNK-795, for the management of acute pain severe enough to require opioid treatment, and for patients for whom alternative treatment options are ineffective, not tolerated, or would otherwise be inadequate.
The drug has both immediate- and extended-release components to allow pain relief within an hour, with twice-daily dosing, the company notes in a statement issued today.
Approval is based in part on results of a phase 3 trial in an acute post-surgical pain model of bunionectomy; results were presented last fall during PAINWeek 2013, and reported by Medscape Medical News at that time. The new formulation met the primary endpoint and showed statistically significant improvement in pain scores vs placebo from baseline over 48 hours.