Object All children born with a myelomeningocele at the authors' institution undergo aggressive treatment to maintain or improve functional outcome. Consequently, when any neurological, orthopedic, and/or urological changes are noted, a search for the cause is initiated. The most common cause of decline in a child born with a myelomeningocele is shunt malfunction. The second most common cause is tethering of the distal spinal cord at the site of the original back closure. In this report, the authors review the indicators of symptomatic spinal cord tethering and discuss the surgical interventions and outcomes in the children with myelomeningocele who underwent treatment at Children's Memorial Hospital from 1975 to 2008. Methods Among the 502 children who underwent original closure at Children's Memorial Hospital, a symptomatic tethered spinal cord developed in 114 (23%). Eighty-one patients (71%) have undergone 1 untethering procedure, and 33 patients (29%) have undergone multiple untetherings, for a total of 163 total surgeries. The indicators of symptomatic spinal cord tethering include scoliosis, decline in lower-extremity (LE) motor strength, LE contractures, LE spasticity, gait change, urinary changes, and pain. Results Pain has shown the best response to surgical untethering, with 100% of children experiencing postoperative improvement. The results of long-term follow-up (average 12 years, range 1 month–23.3 years) in this cohort demonstrated scoliosis progression after surgical untethering in 52% of patients, with 28% requiring spinal fusion. On the 3-month postoperative manual muscle test, 70% of patients showed improved LE muscle strength compared to preoperatively. Gait was also similarly improved after untethering as evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon. Spasticity improved in two-thirds of the cohort, and as expected, LE contractures were stable (78%) postoperatively, as assessed by orthopedic and rehabilitation medicine specialists. Urologically, 64% of patients showed improvements on postoperative bladder evaluation. Conclusions Although this is a clinical outcome study with no control group, the authors' experience has been that tethered cord release is beneficial in maintaining neurological, urological, and orthopedic functioning in children born with a myelomeningocele.

Our long-term outcome study shows that a minimally invasive approach to microdiscectomy with removal of the fragment only is an effective way to treat lumbar disk herniation. The rate of recurrence in our long-term study seems slightly higher compared with previously published studies, which generally had shorter follow-up periods. Long-term patient outcomes for back and leg pain were also very low. No appreciable difference in operative reherniation could be found with patients who had contained verses extruded fragments. It is difficult to predict from this study whether a simple fragmentectomy was the cause of the progression to further surgeries or whether this was the natural progression of a degenerative spine. Further prospective trials are necessary to fully understand the factors associated with limited microdiscectomy.

Primary sarcomas of the sellar region are uncommon, although a wide variety have been reported. To date, no cases of primary synovial sarcoma have been described as occurring at this site. We report an immunohistochemically and molecular genetically confirmed primary synovial sarcoma involving the sellar/parasellar region and cavernous sinus in an adult male. Subtotal resection and radiosurgery proved to be efficacious. The spectrum of primary sellar region sarcomas is summarized.

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Pituitary carcinomas are defined as pituitary tumors with craniospinal and/or systemic metastasis. These are rare and highly aggressive lesions. We present an unusual case of a 52-year-old male who had a pituitary adenoma removed via craniotomy. The tumor recurred three years post-op near the surgical tract, and slowly enlarged before removal two years later. Technically, this lesion was defined as a pituitary carcinoma, even though the histology and clinical course were atypical. There is no standardized grading system for pituitary tumors and ideal criteria should correlate clinically. Treatment for pituitary carcinoma is multimodal and largely empiric. We believe this case illustrates that current definitions of pituitary carcinoma are incomplete.