Current state of social media utilization in neurosurgery amongst European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS) member countries.

BACKGROUND Social Media (SoMe) is becoming increasingly used in the medical community, and its use has been related with academic productivity. However, utilization of SoMe in the European neurosurgical community has not been assessed systematically. METHODS An online search was undertaken to discover SoMe accounts of (1) national and related neurosurgical societies listed on the EANS website, (2) neurosurgical journals present on EANS website, (3) neurosurgery centers within EANS member countries, as listed on their website. SoMe accounts of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram were searched for journals and societies, and Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for neurosurgery departments. The number of likes/followers/subscribers was recorded. RESULTS Five (31%) neurosurgery journals had a SoMe presence. The highest number of followers, likes, and tweets was found for JNNP, and Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B had the most subscribers and video views. SoMe usage was identified for 11 national (28.2%) and 2 multi-national neurosurgical societies. From these, the French Society of Neurosurgery had the largest number of Facebook followers (> 2800) and Likes (> 2700), the Society of British Neurological Surgeons had the largest number of Twitter followers (> 2850), whereas EANS overall had the most followers on Twitter > 5100 and Facebook > 5450. A total of 87 SoMe neurosurgery center accounts were found on either Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, for 64 of 1000 centers (6.4%) in 22 of 40 different countries (55%). Of these 67% (n = 43/64) arose from 6 countries (England, Germany, Italy, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine). There were more Facebook accounts (n = 42) than Instagram accounts (n = 23) or Twitter accounts (n = 22). CONCLUSION SoMe use amongst neurosurgical societies and departments in Europe is very limited. From our perspective, explanations are lacking for the correlated numbers to the market shares of SoMe in the respective countries. Further research, including a survey, to follow up on this important topic should be undertaken among EANS members

Role of erythropoietin signaling in the development and lesion induced plasticity of the mammalian cerebral cortex

Paul Constanthin a étudié le rôle méconnu de l’hormone cytokinique érythropoïétine (EPO) durant le développement cortical en utilisant des techniques de gain et perte de fonction, mettant en évidence un rôle majeur de cette protéine lors de la migration neuronale radiale. En effet, une perturbation transitoire prénatale de la signalisation par EPO altère de manière définitive le positionnement des neurones de la couche quatre du cortex somatosensoriel chez le rat en empêchant la transition mutlipolaire-bipolaire et la locomotion gliophilique de ceux-ci. Ceci entraîne un défaut de différentiation de ces cellules, résultant en une morphologie dendritique anormale et en un échec de l’établissement de leurs connexions synaptiques menant à une activité perturbée de l’ensemble du réseau neuronal et à une altération du comportement de l’animal. Ce rôle de la signalisation intrinsèque par EPO sur la migration neuronale est rempli à travers la régulation de la voie de signalisation MAPK/ERK

Riedel's thyroiditis

AbstractThis article describes an unusual case of Riedel's thyroiditis and discusses its imagery, pathology, and treatment

Long-Term Positional Headaches Due to Cervical Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak After Acupuncture Treatment – A Case-Report

Acupuncture is a frequent alternative treatment for both acute and chronic pain and its usage has spread widely during the last decades. This technique is however not free of adverse effects, mainly due to mi- grating material or excessive depth of needling, and some might durably impair ' quality of life. In this article, we present a case of post-acupuncture traumatic cervical dural leak in a young female patient leading to chronic positional headaches resulting in a significant impairment of the ' everyday life

Loss of neuromonitoring signal during bilateral thyroidectomy: no systematic change in operative strategy according to a survey of the French Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AFCE)

Total thyroidectomy presents a risk of bilateral vocal cord paralysis, which can lead to compromised airway. Visual Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve (RLN) identification significantly decreases this risk of RLN lesion. Yet, an anatomically intact nerve is not always functional. Intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) allows to test in real time the function of the RLN. In case of loss of signal (LOS) on the first operated side, some authors recommend to stop the intervention. The purpose of this study was to characterize the operative strategy of the French-speaking surgeons in case of LOS on the first side in planned bilateral thyroidectomies

Comparison of two segmentation software tools for deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic and ventro-intermedius nuclei

International audiencePurpose: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) relies on precise targeting of key structures such as the subthalamic nucleus (STN)for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and the ventro-intermedius nucleus of the thalamus (Vim) for essential tremor (ET). Segmentation software, such as GuideXT© and Suretune©, are commercially available for atlas-based identification of deep brain structures. However, no study has compared the concordance of the segmentation results between the two software.Methods: We retrospectively compared the concordance of segmentation of GuideXT© and Suretune© software by comparing the position of the segmented key structures with clinically predicted targets obtained using the newly developed RebrAIn© software as a reference.Results: We targeted the STN in 44 MRI from PD patients (88 hemispheres) and the Vim in 31 MRI from ET patients (62 hemispheres) who were elected for DBS. In 22 STN targeting (25%), the target positioning was not correlating between GuideXT© and Suretune©. Regarding the Vim, targets were located in the segmented Vim in 37%, the posterior subthalamic area (PSA) in 60%, and the STN in 3% of the cases using GuideXT©; the proportions were 34%, 60%, and 6%, respectively, using Suretune©. The mean distance from the centre of the RebrAIn© targeting to the segmented Vim by Suretune© was closer (0.64 mm) than with GuideXT© (0.96 mm; p = 0.0004).Conclusion: While there is some level of concordance in the segmentation results of key structures for DBS treatment among software models, differences persist. Therefore, such software should still be considered as tools and should not replace clinician experience in DBS planning