Transluminal cerebral angioplasty is very effective in reversing angiographically confirmed vasospasm, and anecdotal reports of its clinical utility are numerous. However, in this report the authors conclude that its superiority to medical management for symptomatic cerebral vasospasm is questionable.

Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of baseline frailty status [as measured by modified frailty index-5 (mFI-5)] versus age on postoperative outcomes of patients undergoing surgery for spinal tumors using data from a large national registry. Methods:The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database was used to collect spinal tumor resection patients' data from 2015 to 2019 (n = 4662). Univariate and multivariate analyses for age and mFI-5 were performed for the following outcomes: 30-day mortality, major complications, unplanned reoperation, unplanned readmission, hospital length of stay (LOS), and discharge to a non-home destination. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the discriminative performance of age versus mFI-5. Results:Both univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that mFI-5 was a more robust predictor of worse postoperative outcomes as compared to age. Furthermore, based on categorical analysis of frailty tiers, increasing frailty was significantly associated with increased risk of adverse outcomes. 'Severely frail' patients were found to have the highest risk, with OR 16.4 (95% CI,11.21-35.44) for 30-day mortality, 3.02 (95% CI, 1.97-4.56) for major complications, and 2.94 (95% CI, 2.32-4.21) for LOS. In ROC curve analysis, mFI-5 score (AUC 0.743) achieved superior discrimination compared to age (AUC 0.594) for mortality. Conclusion:Increasing frailty, as measured by mFI-5, is a more robust predictor as compared to age, for poor postoperative outcomes in spinal tumor surgery patients. The mFI-5 may be clinically used for preoperative risk stratification of spinal tumor patients.

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BACKGROUND Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) requires individualized, physiology-based management to avoid secondary brain injury. Recent improvements in quantitative assessments of metabolism, oxygenation, and subtle examination changes may potentially allow for more targeted, rational approaches beyond simple intracranial pressure (ICP)-based management. The authors present a case in which multimodality monitoring assisted in decision-making for decompressive craniectomy. OBSERVATIONS This patient sustained a severe TBI without mass lesion and was monitored with a multimodality approach. Although imaging did not seem grossly worrisome, ICP, pressure reactivity, brain tissue oxygenation, and pupillary response all began worsening, pushing toward decompressive craniectomy. All parameters normalized after decompression, and the patient had a satisfactory clinical outcome. LESSONS Given recent conflicting randomized trials on the utility of decompressive craniectomy in severe TBI, precision, physiology-based approaches may offer an improved strategy to determine who is most likely to benefit from aggressive treatment. Trials are underway to test components of these strategies.

Low back pain (LBP) is a common affliction with numerous causes. Some individuals experience LBP attributed to disc pathology. Disc pathology has been implicated in a plurality of cases of LBP, and some cases are associated with annular fissures (AFs). AFs are weaknesses in the structure that contains the nucleus pulposus and is the site of possible disc herniations. On magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), some AFs manifest as the high-intensity zone (HIZ), otherwise known as an annular enhancement region. In this report, we present three patients with LBP, mild radiculitis, and HIZ who later developed herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP) with extrusion through the HIZ. These cases suggest that HIZ indicates a propensity for the future development of disc extrusion through the weakened tissue at the AF visualized as HIZ on MRI. With a better understanding of the association between AFs and disc herniations with HIZ, clinicians may be able to predict and prevent the pain and disability associated with disc extrusion.