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This minimally invasive technique allows surgeons to remove skull base tumors as large as softballs through the nose, with less trauma to the brain and critical nerves than with a traditional craniotomy.
To learn more, please visit https://www.upmc.com/
During surgery to repair the hernia, the bulging tissue is pushed back in. Your abdominal wall is strengthened and supported with sutures (stitches), and sometimes mesh. This repair can be done with open or laparoscopic surgery. You and your surgeon can discuss which type of surgery is right for you.
Kendall Lee, M.D., describes deep brain stimulation surgery, and how it is is typically done with patients who remain awake, so neurological functions can be measured and maintained. For more information on deep brain stimulation, visit http://mayocl.in/2A09T80.
32 year old Dede Kosawa, also known as 'Tree Man', is one of the world's most extraordinary people. He lives in a remote village in Indonesia with his two children, trying to care for them. Dede, a former fisherman, has an incredible skin condition: he has root like structures growing out of his body - branches that can grow up to 5cm a year and which protrude from his hands and feet, and welts covering his whole body.
He is known locally as ‘Tree Man’ and his condition has baffled local doctors for 20 years. In an attempt to earn a living to support his family, he is part of a circus troupe, displaying his 'Tree Man' limbs along with others afflicted with skin deformities in ‘freak’ shows.
Dr Anthony Gaspari, a world expert in skin conditions from the University of Maryland travels to Indonesia to attempt to diagnose 'Tree Man' Dede’s mysterious condition. He takes skin samples for biopsies back in the USA. What will he discover?
We go on an intimate journey with the extraordinary 'Tree Man' Dede, as he tries to eek out a living in a circus troupe to support his family, and as he is given medical help by Dr Gaspari. The identification and possible cure of his condition, could change his whole life.
Half way across the world, in Romania, farmer Ion Toader is discovered to have a similar extraordinary ‘Tree Man’ condition, with growths all over his hands. He has not been able to drive a tractor for five years. A Romanian surgeon offers to give him an operation to remove his growths.
Will it be successful, and how will it change Ion’s life?
The complex circuitry interconnecting different areas in the brain, known collectively as white matter, is composed of millions of axons organized into fascicles and bundles. Upon macroscopic examination of sections of the brain, it is difficult to discern the orientation of the fibers. The same is true for conventional imaging modalities. However, recent advancements in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) make such task possible in a live subject. By sensitizing an otherwise typical MRI sequence to the diffusion of water molecules it is possible to measure their diffusion coefficient in a given direction1. Normally, the axonal membrane and myelin sheaths pose barriers to the movement of water molecules and, thus, they diffuse preferentially along the axon2. Therefore, the direction of white matter bundles can be elucidated by determining the principal diffusivity of water. The three-dimensional representation of the diffusion coefficient can be given by a tensor and its mathematical decomposition provides the direction of the tracts3; this MRI technique is known as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). By connecting the information acquired with DTI, three-dimensional depictions of white matter fascicles are obtained4. The virtual dissection of white matter bundles is rapidly becoming a valuable tool in clinical research.
Our journey begins with a transverse section of tightly packed axons as seen through light microscopy. Although represented as a two-dimensional "slice", we see that these axons in fact resemble tubes. A simulation of water molecules diffusing randomly inside the axons demonstrates how the membranes and myelin hinder their movement across them and shows the preferred diffusion direction --along the axons. The tracts depicted through DTI slowly blend in and we ride along with them. As we zoom out even more, we realize that it is a portion of the corpus callosum connecting the two sides of the brain we were traveling on and the great difference in relative scale of the individual axons becomes evident. The surface of the brain is then shown, as well as the rest of the white matter bundles--a big, apparently chaotic tangle of wires. Finally, the skin covers the brain.
With the exception of the simulated water molecules, all the data presented in the animation is obtained through microscopy and MRI. Computer algorithms for the extraction of the cerebral structures and a custom-built graphics engine make our journey through the brain's anatomy possible in a living person.
Micrograph courtesy of Dr. Christian Beaulieu, University of Alberta.
Music by Mario Mattioli.
References:
1. Stejskal, E.O., et al., J. Chem. Phys., 1965. 42:
2. Beaulieu, C., NMR Biomed., 2002. 15:435-55.
3. Basser, P.J., et al., J. Magn. Reson. B, 1994. 103:247-54.
4. Mori, S., et al., NMR Biomed., 2002. 15:468-80.