No abstract

We demonstrate that a conduit filled with platelet-rich fibrin can induce limited, but appropriate, sensory and motor recovery across a 12-cm nerve gap repaired 3.25 years post trauma, without sacrificing a sensory nerve, can reduce existing excruciating neuropathic pain to tolerable, and allow avoidance of an indicated upper-extremity amputation. We believe the technique can be improved to induce more extensive and reliable neurological recovery.

We believe that the surgeon must determine a preoperative plan that maximizes the chance for a gross total removal of the craniopharyngioma. The biggest challenge intraoperatively is to determine whether to continue with the attempt at gross total removal or stop short of that goal before producing a significant irreversible neurological deficit. A staged removal using different operative corridors also needs to be considered.

Isolated adult human dorsal root ganglion neurons survive in culture for more than 2 1/2 months, extend processes, and remain electrically excitable, without exogenous neurotrophins. These results suggest that, adult human sensory neurons do not require exogenous neurotrophins for survival and process outgrowth, or that sufficient factors were provided by the small number of satellite cells in the cultures. In addition, the neurons survive well in spite of an initial period of up to 14 hours of hypoxia, between the time the aorta was clamped and when the plated neurons were placed in an incubator with the appropriate O2/CO2 environment.