BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:High-field-strength intraoperative MR imaging has emerged as a powerful adjunct for resection of brain tumors. However, its exact role has not been firmly established. We sought to determine the impact of 3T-intraoperative MRI on the surgical management of childhood CNS tumors.

Purpose Citation counting can be used to evaluate the impact an article has made on its discipline. This study characterizes the most cited articles related to clinical pediatric neurosurgery as of July 2013. Methods A list of search terms was computed using Thomson Reuters Web of Science® (WOS) to capture the 100 most cited articles in the overall literature and the top 50 articles from 2002 to 2012 related to clinical pediatric neurosurgery from non-dedicated pediatric neurosurgical journals. The following information was recorded for each article: number of authors, country of origin, citation count adjusted for number of years in print, topic, and level of evidence. Results The 100 most cited articles appeared in 44 journals. Publication dates ranged from 1986 to 2008; two were class 1 evidence, nine class 2, 26 class 3, and 52 class 4. Citations ranged from 90 to 321 (mean=131); average time-adjusted citation count was 10. The 50 most cited articles from 2002 to 2012 appeared in 31 journals; four were class 2 evidence, 15 class 3, and 21 class 4. Citations ranged from 68 to 245 (mean=103); average time-adjusted citation count was 13. Conclusion Overall, papers from non-pediatric neurosurgical journals had higher citation counts and improved level of evidence grades compared to articles from pediatric neurosurgical periodicals. An original paper related to clinical pediatric neurosurgery in a non-pediatric neurosurgical journal having a total citation count of 100–150 or more and an average citation count of 10–15 per year or more can be considered a high-impact publication.

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Intracranial arachnoid cysts are a rare condition thought to be congenital in nature. Treatment of intracranial arachnoid cysts remains controversial based on their variable presentation. Treatment options include CSF shunting, endoscopic fenestration, or craniotomy and open fenestration for larger cysts. The complications of these procedures can include hydrocephalus, subdural hematomas, hygromas, and—more rarely—intraparenchymal hemorrhage. The authors found very few reports of hemorrhagic infarction as a complication of arachnoid cyst fenestration in the literature. The authors report a case of an 18-year-old female patient who suffered an ipsilateral hemorrhagic infarction after craniotomy for open fenestration of an arachnoid cyst.

Type I Chiari malformation presents without an associated hydromyelia in 30 to 70% of cases, yet there is no agreement regarding the optimal surgical treatment for these patients. We review our experience for treating symptomatic adult type I Chiari malformation without hydromyelia using a suboccipital bone decompression of the hindbrain and no duraplasty in 12 adult patients. Outcome was measured according to the Chicago Chiari Outcome Scale (CCOS). Nine of 12 patients were female; average age at surgery was 34.4 years (range: 17-67 years). Average duration of symptoms prior to surgery was 9.6 years (2 months-29 years). The most common symptom was head and/or neck pain (11/12 patients). All patients additionally presented with at least one non-pain symptom. Mean degree of tonsillar herniation on magnetic resonance imaging was 6.8 mm (range: 5-12 mm) below McRae's line. Operative time was on average 68 minutes (range: 47-120 minutes). No surgical complications were noted in any patient. Length of hospital stay was 2 days (1 overnight) for all patients. Mean follow-up was 167 weeks (range: 13-378 weeks). CCOS for all patients on average was 14.50 (range: 12-16). Pain symptoms underwent improvement (7/11 [63.6%]) or complete resolution (4/11 [36.4%]) in all affected patients. A shorter duration of preoperative symptoms significantly correlated with a better CCOS ( = 0.03). Degree of tonsillar herniation had no significant effect on CCOS ( = 0.67). Of non-pain symptoms, paresthesias/dysesthesias and visual symptoms improved or resolved completely in all affected patients. No patient experienced a worsening of either pain or non-pain symptoms. In the subset of adult patients with a type I Chiari malformation and no associated hydromyelia, a craniectomy without an additional opening of the dura may achieve good overall results according to the CCOS.