No abstract

Endoscopic suboccipital paramedian aqueductoplasty with the use of a stent is a safe and effective surgical option that-in our opinion-should stand as the first line treatment for the entrapped fourth ventricle. Long stent is better used after aqueductoplasty to avoid the restenosis if no stent is used or stent fall after short stents. However, good case selection, familiarity with this fairly common endoscopic approach and longer follow-up is needed for obtaining an optimal result.

Hydrocephalus is a very common disease in developing countries. Congenital aqueductal obstruction and post-inflammatory hydrocephalus come on the top of the list of causes of hydrocephalus. Till the recent introduction of cranial endoscopy and despite their frequent complications, shunts were considered as the mainstream treatment for this disease. Endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV), especially for obstructive hydrocephalus, introduced a new era of treatment that is free of lifetime shunt dependency. This study was done to assess the efficacy of ETV for treating post-inflammatory hydrocephalus in a unique group of patients thus preventing—if possible—the lifetime shunt dependency and suffering. ETV was tried as a first-line therapy in 35 children (23 males and 12 females) with hydrocephalus proved to be secondary to intracranial infection. Mean age was 9.2 months (4-15). Twenty-four patients (68.6%) were below the age of 6 months while 11 patients (31.4%) were above 6 months. Twenty-five patients (71.4%) had a head circumference of 3 cm and 10 patients (28.6%) had a 5 cm or more increase in the head circumference above the 95th percentile. All the patients included were followed postoperatively with regular clinical, computerized tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations as well as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis and culture. The overall success of ETV was 55.9% (19/34). Nine (81.9%) out of the 11 patients that were endoscopically documented to have aqueductal obstruction showed improvement. While out of the 23 patients with patent aqueduct, only 10 patients (43.4%) had improved. Procedure-related complications were not encountered. CSF leakage from the surgical wound occurred in three patients and mild CSF infection occurred in one patient. ETV is a simple, safe, and effective method in treating not only obstructive hydrocephalus due to non-inflammatory etiology, but also post-inflammatory hydrocephalus especially when the aqueduct is obstructed. An overall 50% improvement in our study and even more in other series encourage the trial of getting rid of the lifetime shunt complications and suffering.

Background: Third ventricular colloid cysts are benign lesions originating in the roof of the anterior third ventricle. They constitute around 1% of all intracranial tumors. The optimal surgical management of colloid cysts continues to be a matter of debate.Objective: This study was perfomed to assess the efficacy and safety of the endoscopic technique in treatment of 90 patients with colloid cysts.Methods: During the period from June 2001 to October 2011, 90 patients with third ventricular colloid cyst were operated by the endoscopic single burr hole approach. The age ranged between 16 and 67 years (mean 40.3 years). Fifty-eight were females. The cyst size ranged between 8 and 35 mm. In computed tomography (CT) scan, the cyst was hyperdense in 74 cases and isodense in 16 cases. The standard Kocher burr hole was used in 63 and a more both anterior and lateral burr hole was used in 27 cases. Total cyst removal was achieved in 79 patients. Cyst content evacuation and capsule coagulation was done in 10 cases; whereas partial cyst excision was made in 1 case. All patients were followed by a CT scan at 1 and 6 months time from the surgery and then at 2-year interval. The follow-up period ranged from 6 to 120 months with a mean of 62 months.Results: The operative time ranged between 60 and 175 minutes with a mean of 84 minutes. Ventriculostomy tube and prophylactic antiepileptics were not used for any of the cases. One patient needed ventricular shunting 5 months after the procedure. There was no reported mortality related to the endoscopic colloid cyst removal. The reported morbidities were hemiparesis in 2 cases, transient memory deficit in 7 patients, superficial wound infection in 5 patients, and CSF leakage from the wound in 3 cases. No recurrence was found in our series.Conclusions: Being a burr hole technique, endoscopy offers a real safe and effective minimally invasive tool for treating third ventricular colloids. It offers superior illumination, greater magnification, and enhanced visualizations of the ventricular anatomy. There is no doubt that the mortality, morbidity, and operative costs are less with endoscopy when compared with other combating therapeutic modalities. In our opinion, if the endless argument considering the point of tumor recurrence is brought apart, endoscopy should be the first-line treatment for third ventricular colloid cysts.www.neurosurgery-quarterly.com | 47 FIGURE 4. A, Computed tomography scan (axial view) showing third ventricular colloid cyst in a 21-year-old male patient. Partial cyst excision was made for this patient. B, CT scan (axial view) 6 months after surgery showing complete disappearance of the colloid cyst.We believe that this series did not add anything relevant to the technique by itself, and hence the relatively longer period of case follow-up without recurrence deserves to be examined. CONCLUSIONSEndoscopy, being a burr hole technique, offers a real safe and effective minimally invasive tool for treating third ventricular colloids. It offers superior illumination,...