scholarly journals Contralateral sialadenitis after resection of a right cerebellar metastasis: illustrative case

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (26) ◽  

BACKGROUND Acute postoperative sialadenitis is a rare and potentially morbid complication of cranial neurosurgery. This rapidly progressive, unilateral neck swelling often presents within hours of extubation. Diagnosis is made by imaging and exclusion of other causes of etiologies, such as neck hematoma, sialolithiasis, and dependent soft tissue edema. OBSERVATIONS The authors presented a case of acute postoperative sialadenitis after suboccipital resection of a right cerebellar metastasis. Shortly after extubation, extensive left-sided neck swelling was apparent in the postanesthesia care unit. No central lines were placed during the procedure. Imaging revealed submandibular gland edema and fluid accumulation in the surrounding tissue. The patient was managed conservatively with steroids, antibiotics, and warm compresses, with complete resolution of symptoms 2 weeks after the procedure. LESSONS This case emphasizes the broad differential of acute neck swelling after cranial surgery. Physical examination of the neck and airway protection should guide initial treatment. If a patient is stable, bedside ultrasound and computed tomography can be helpful with the differential diagnosis. Here the authors proposed an algorithm for diagnosis and treatment of acute neck swelling after cranial surgery.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Yu Lam ◽  
Hin Yue Lau

Laryngocele is a rare entity and can be defined as an abnormal cystic dilatation of saccule of the laryngeal ventricle with communication to the lumen of larynx. Laryngopyocele is a rare complication of laryngocele when it is infected. Patients may present with fever, neck swelling, shortness of breath, and hoarseness. Acute presentation can develop rapidly with alarming symptom, such as stridor, which signifies airway obstruction and warrants immediate treatment and airway protection. Computed tomography and endoscopy are useful in making the diagnosis and delineate the severity of disease. Laryngopyocele should be treated with antibiotics, drainage of purulent content, and followed by definitive surgical excision.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s4-s5
Author(s):  
Rachel Snyder ◽  
Katelyn White ◽  
Janet Glowicz ◽  
Shannon Novosad ◽  
Elizabeth Soda ◽  
...  

Background: The Targeted Assessment for Prevention (TAP) strategy is a quality improvement framework created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to facilitate the reduction of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). TAP facility assessments are a component of the TAP strategy and are completed by staff across the facility to help identify perceptions of and target infection prevention gaps. We have described the gaps most commonly reported by facilities completing TAP facility assessments for catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and central-line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs). Methods: TAP CAUTI and CLABSI assessments were completed by acute-care facilities across the nation, with CDC technical assistance, from December 2014 to August 2019. Similar questions across 2 versions of CAUTI assessments and 3 versions of CLABSI assessments were combined. Analysis was limited to facilities with ≥10 assessments. Infection prevention gaps were defined as ≥33% respondents answering Unknown, ≥33% respondents answering “no,” or ≥50% of respondents answering “no” and “unknown” or “never” and “rarely” “sometimes” “unknown.” The analysis was completed at the facility level, and the gaps most commonly reported across facilities were identified. Results: In total, 1,942 CAUTI assessments from 42 facilities in 12 states and 1,623 CLABSI assessments from 29 facilities in 11 states were included for analysis. The mean numbers of assessments per facility were 46.2 for CAUTIs and 56.0 for CLABSIs. Across both CAUTIs and CLABSIs, commonly reported perceptions about infection prevention gaps included lack of physician and nurse champions for prevention activities, failure to conduct competency assessments, and inconsistency in select device insertion practices (Fig. 1). For CAUTIs, lack of practices to facilitate timely removal of urinary catheters were also commonly reported, with one-third of facilities reporting inconsistency in use of alerts for catheter removal, 78.6% reporting lack of physician response to these alerts, and 90.5% reporting deficiencies in removing unnecessary catheters in the postanesthesia care unit. For CLABSIs, 79.3% of facilities reported failure to replace central lines within 48 hours after emergent insertion, and 62.1% reported that feedback was not provided to staff on central-line device utilization ratios. Conclusion: For both assessments, absence of CAUTI and CLABSI prevention champions, failure to conduct competency assessments, and inconsistency in performing device insertion practices were commonly reported across facilities. These common gaps have and will continue to inform the development of tools and resources to improve infection prevention practices as well as help to better target the implementation of interventions.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Travis Caton ◽  
Kazim Narsinh ◽  
Amanda Baker ◽  
Adib A. Abla ◽  
Jarod L. Roland ◽  
...  

BACKGROUNDThe authors recently reported a series of children with vertebral artery (VA) compression during head turning who presented with recurrent posterior circulation stroke. Whether VA compression occurs during head positioning for cranial surgery is unknown.OBSERVATIONSThe authors report a case of a child with incidental rotational occlusion of the VA observed during surgical head positioning for treatment of an intracranial arteriovenous fistula. Intraoperative angiography showed dynamic V3 occlusion at the level of C2 with distal reconstitution via a muscular branch “jump” collateral, supplying reduced flow to the V4 segment. She had no clinical history or imaging suggesting acute or prior stroke. Sequential postoperative magnetic resonance imaging scans demonstrated signal abnormality of the left rectus capitus muscle, suggesting ischemic edema.LESSONSThis report demonstrates that rotational VA compression during neurosurgical head positioning can occur in children but may be asymptomatic due to the presence of muscular VA–VA “jump” collaterals and contralateral VA flow. Although unilateral VA compression may be tolerated by children with codominant VAs, diligence when rotating the head away from a dominant VA is prudent during patient positioning to avoid posterior circulation ischemia or thromboembolism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (20) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donny Argie ◽  
Christopher Lauren ◽  
Elric B. Malelak

BACKGROUND Xanthoma is a granulomatous lesion that develops from leakage of circulating serum lipoprotein into the surrounding tissue. An isolated intracranial xanthoma is rarely reported and usually misdiagnosed. Intracranial xanthoma is also rarely found in patients with hyperlipidemia. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies and literature have reported bilateral involvement of intracranial xanthoma in the frontal lobe. OBSERVATIONS The authors reported an unusual case of bilateral involvement of intracranial xanthoma in the frontal lobe with associated type II hyperlipidemia in a 42-year-old woman. Macroscopically, the tumor had an appearance of greyish-yellow color with a brittle, solid consistency. Histopathological examination revealed numerous lipid-laden macrophages surrounded by a cystic, necrotic, partially hemorrhagic area, with some parts consisting of hemosiderophages and proliferative capillary blood vessels. The histopathological findings indicated the characteristics of xanthoma. LESSONS Bilateral frontal intracranial xanthoma with associated type II hyperlipidemia is an unusual finding. Despite its rarity and wide variety of radiological presentations, it should be considered one of the differential diagnoses of lesions that develop intracranially and intraaxially. Confirmation with histopathological examination is needed to exclude from other differential diagnoses.


Author(s):  
Adrian F. van Dellen

The morphologic pathologist may require information on the ultrastructure of a non-specific lesion seen under the light microscope before he can make a specific determination. Such lesions, when caused by infectious disease agents, may be sparsely distributed in any organ system. Tissue culture systems, too, may only have widely dispersed foci suitable for ultrastructural study. In these situations, when only a few, small foci in large tissue areas are useful for electron microscopy, it is advantageous to employ a methodology which rapidly selects a single tissue focus that is expected to yield beneficial ultrastructural data from amongst the surrounding tissue. This is in essence what "LIFTING" accomplishes. We have developed LIFTING to a high degree of accuracy and repeatability utilizing the Microlift (Fig 1), and have successfully applied it to tissue culture monolayers, histologic paraffin sections, and tissue blocks with large surface areas that had been initially fixed for either light or electron microscopy.


Author(s):  
Fred E. Hossler

Preparation of replicas of the complex arrangement of blood vessels in various organs and tissues has been accomplished by infusing low viscosity resins into the vasculature. Subsequent removal of the surrounding tissue by maceration leaves a model of the intricate three-dimensional anatomy of the blood vessels of the tissue not obtainable by any other procedure. When applied with care, the vascular corrosion casting technique can reveal fine details of the microvasculature including endothelial nuclear orientation and distribution (Fig. 1), locations of arteriolar sphincters (Fig. 2), venous valve anatomy (Fig. 3), and vessel size, density, and branching patterns. Because casts faithfully replicate tissue vasculature, they can be used for quantitative measurements of that vasculature. The purpose of this report is to summarize and highlight some quantitative applications of vascular corrosion casting. In each example, casts were prepared by infusing Mercox, a methyl-methacrylate resin, and macerating the tissue with 20% KOH. Casts were either mounted for conventional scanning electron microscopy, or sliced for viewing with a confocal laser microscope.


Author(s):  
H. J. Finol ◽  
M. E. Correa ◽  
L.A. Sosa ◽  
A. Márquez ◽  
N.L. Díaz

In classical oncological literature two mechanisms for tissue aggression in patients with cancer have been described. The first is the progressive invasion, infiltration and destruction of tissues surrounding primary malignant tumor or their metastases; the other includes alterations produced in remote sites that are not directly affected by any focus of disease, the so called paraneoplastic phenomenon. The non-invaded tissue which surrounds a primary malignant tumor or its metastases has been usually considered a normal tissue . In this work we describe the ultrastructural changes observed in hepatocytes located next to metastases from diverse malignant tumors.Hepatic biopsies were obtained surgically in patients with different malignant tumors which metatastized in liver. Biopsies included tumor mass, the zone of macroscopic contact between the tumor and the surrounding tissue, and the tissue adjacent to the tumor but outside the macroscopic area of infiltration. The patients (n = 5), 36–75 years old, presented different tumors including rhabdomyosarcoma, leiomyosarcoma, pancreas carcinoma, biliar duct carcinoma and colon carcinoma. Tissue samples were processed with routine techniques for transmission electron microscopy and observed in a Hitachi H-500 electron microscope.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 278
Author(s):  
Anne Bacal ◽  
Nour Batarseh ◽  
Erin Drever ◽  
Tahira Yasmeen

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document