To determine the clinical and radiological features of the patients who were found to have cavum septum pellucidum (CSP) on the cranial computerized tomographic (CT) scans.
Pregnancy complicated by lung cancer has been rarely reported. The regional incidence of this complex situation is likely to increase in the future and optimal management needs to be established to better deal with this situation. We report two patients with metastatic lung cancer complicating pregnancy to highlight the evaluation and management difficulties associated with this problem and to contribute to the limited information in the literature.
We describe what we believe is the first reported case of a sublingual hematoma secondary to severe hypertension. The patient, a 77-year-old woman, experienced a spontaneous hematoma of the floor of the mouth, tongue, and sublingual space that eventually caused an airway obstruction. We performed an emergency tracheostomy under local anesthesia and then evacuated the hematoma through an incision along the floor of the mouth. The patient recovered uneventfully.
The aim of the study was to determine the clinical profile, aetiology and radiological categories in children diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans (BO).
Headache is a very common patient complaint but secondary causes for headache are unusual. Neuroimaging is both expensive and has a low yield in this group. Most patients with intracranial pathology have clinical features that would raise a "red flag". Appropriate selection of patients with headache for neuroimaging to look for secondary causes is very important. Red flags act as screening tools to help in identifying those patients presenting with headache who would benefit from prompt neuroimaging, and may increase the yield. The aim of this study is to evaluate clinical features in patients with headache using neuroimaging as a screening tool for intracranial pathology. 20 red flags were defined. A retrospective study of 111 patients was performed and the outcomes were divided into positive and negative. Abnormal neuroimaging was present in 39 patients. Results were analysed using the Logistic Regression model. Sensitivity and specificity of red flags were analysed to establish the cut-off point to predict abnormal neuroimaging and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve plotted to show the sensitivity of the diagnostic test. Three red flag features proved to be statistically significant with the p-value of less than 0.05 on both univariate and multivariate analysis. These were: paralysis; papilloedema; and "drowsiness, confusion, memory impairment and loss of consciousness". In addition, if three or more red flags from the list were present, this showed strong indication of abnormal neuroimaging, from cut-off point of ROC curve (area under the curve =0.76).
A case of large adrenocortical carcinoma extending into the inferior vena cava and right atrium is reported. Computed tomography showed a large mass displacing the left kidney inferiorly with an intravascular tumour thrombus extending into the inferior vena cava and right atrium. Radical surgery under hypothermia and cardiopulmonary bypass was performed and the tumour mass, together with the tumour thrombus, was successfully removed. The presence of intravascular tumour extension alone should not be a contraindication to radical surgical therapy, as it is the best hope for prolonged survival.
We report five patients who presented with seminoma of an undescended testis to highlight the importance of dealing with adult cryptorchidism. On the basis of the literature review and our experience, we advocate orchidectomy for post-pubertal cryptorchid patients of any age because follow-up may be difficult, and treatment for the tumour may be unsuccessful.
Cerebral lupus (CL) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with SLE. The brain CTs of 27 consecutive adult patients with SLE and various neurological presentations were reviewed. The median age and duration of neurological symptoms at the time of the brain CT were 30 years (range = 14-51 years) and six days (range = 1 day-22 years), respectively. Eleven patients (41%) had normal CTs. The abnormalities in the remaining patients could be divided into six categories: (a) cerebral atrophy alone (two patients); (b) calcification alone (three patients); (c) infarct(s) alone (five patients); (d) cerebral atrophy and calcification (three patients); (e) cerebral atrophy and infarct(s) (one patient) and (f) cerebral atrophy, calcification and infarct(s) (two patients). Altogether eight patients (30%) (age range = 17-47 years) had intracerebral calcification: the globus pallidus was involved in all, putamen in two, head of the caudate nucleus in one, thalamus in one, centrum semiovale in two and cerebellum in three patients. Two patients had extensive calcifications of most of the basal ganglia, centrum semiovale and cerebellum. There was no relationship between the presence/degree of calcification and age of patients/duration or type of neurological presentation. The pathogenesis of cerebral calcification in CL is unknown. Cerebral lupus must now be included in the differential diagnosis of intracerebral calcification.
Sixty-nine severely head-injured patients treated by general surgeons over a 28 month period with admission Glasgow Coma Scale motor scores of 3 to 8 were reviewed retrospectively. Fifty-one patients were comatose on admission with periods from injury to admission exceeding 4 h in 34 patients who were referred from peripheral hospitals. Forty patients with acute intracranial bleeding underwent emergency decompressive surgery with 13 good recoveries and 18 deaths; good recoveries were observed in 11 of 20 patients with extradural haemorrhages, one out of eight patients with subdural haemorrhages, and one of 12 patients with intracerebral and/or combined haemorrhages. Twenty-nine patients with no evidence of acute mass lesions were treated medically with sedation, mechanical ventilation and mannitol infusion for cerebral decompression with seven good recoveries and 16 deaths. There were 15 good outcomes in 40 patients with admission motor scores of 6, 7 or 8 and five good outcomes in 29 patients with scores of 3, 4 or 5. A good outcome of 29% in the study may be improved by (i) better neurosurgical training of surgical and nursing staff; (ii) provision of technologically advanced diagnostic and treatment modalities; (iii) an efficient referral system; and (iv) provision of effective long-term rehabilitation.
Rectal duplications are rare anomalies. Recently, we observed four cases of rectal duplication, each presenting with different clinical features including chronic constipation, a prolapsing rectal "polyp, " a "growth" from the vulva, and acute retention of urine. The variety of clinical presentations may lead to delay in diagnosis and multiple operations.
Intracavernous carotid artery aneurysm following head injury is a rare occurrence. Two such cases presenting with delayed but massive and repeated epistaxis are reported and the literature reviewed. The first case required a trapping procedure while the second case had only cervical carotid ligation to control the bleeding. Both resulted in no neurological sequelae.
The frustration and disappointment in managing advanced cancers of the nose and paranasal sinuses are well known. We report a case of a successful treatment of such a tumour in a 37-year-old soldier, using a combination of therapy including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Each mode of treatment is discussed.
Micrococcus spp. are commensal organisms colonizing the body surfaces of humans. In a few instances these organisms have been reported to colonize ventricular shunts. We report a patient, with no overt evidence of immunosuppression, in whom Micrococcus luteus was responsible for intracranial suppuration at multiple sites.
The common investigations done were pure tone audiometry, electronystagmography, X-ray of the internal auditory meatus, CT-scan of the internal auditory meatus and X-ray of the cervical spine. After the examinations and investigations only 52 patients out of the 107 could be given any diagnosis. The most common diagnosis for the vertigo was Meniere's disease.
The aim of this investigation was to determine the prognostic value of coagulation abnormalities in a defined subset of patients with acute head injury. Prothrombin time, accelerated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin clotting time, fibrinogen assay, platelet count, fibrin degradation products (FDP) were assayed in 204 patients with acute closed head injury. Their values were graded on a score 0-3 and the sum score for each patient regarded as the disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) score. Moderate to severe DIC scores were evident in 38% of the cohort. At least one parameter was abnormal in 71% of patients. The DIC score correlated inversely with the Glasgow coma score (GCS) (p < 0.0001). In the GCS 13-15 subset, FDP scores were significant predictors of poor outcome (p < 0.001). In the GCS 6-12 subset, the APTT score (p < 0.001), and DIC score (p < 0.0001) predicted an adverse outcome. The DIC scores were significantly abnormal in most patients who had a poor outcome, without evidence of adverse predictors on CT. Logistic regression analysis confirmed the independent predictive capacity of APTT, FDP and DIC scores when values for GCS were fixed. Abnormal haemostatic parameters may enhance the predictive ability in subsets of patients with acute head injury defined by clinical or CT predictors.
An unusual case of syringomyelia secondary to a cauda equina meningioma involving the conus medullaris is described. The tumour was totally removed with decompression of an adjacent cyst and syrinx resulting in resolution of the symptoms and radiological appearance.