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E de Divitiis

Publications and source records attributed to E de Divitiis.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Instruments for endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery.

TECHNIQUE: Endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery. New, developing, minimally invasive technique. Removal of pituitary lesions and tumors of the parasellar region. TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT: Endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery. Endonasal, not transnasal, procedure. Great respect of anatomy. Very wide surgical field, without intraoperative use of a nasal speculum, but with less room in which to work (only one nostril) and potential conflict between the surgeon's hands and the endoscope (both when entering the nostril and while working inside). INSTRUMENTATION: New instrument. Secure grip. Barycenter of the instrument is the surgeon's hands. Many different tips with different functions. Elimination of the bayonet-like shape. Handle bent in the horizontal plane to avoid interference with the surgeon's hands and to allow the distal, thin part of the instrument to be used safely and comfortably.

Endoscopes↗
PubMed1998

Effect of surgery and radiotherapy on visual and endocrine function in nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas.

The effect of surgery alone or followed by radiotherapy in recovering visual abnormalities, debulking tumor mass and restoring hormone impairments was evaluated in 84 patients with clinical nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA) subjected to 1-10 yr follow-up. All patients underwent surgery via transsphenoidal (in 69) or transcranic-pterional approach (in 15). Radiotherapy was performed after surgery in 59 of 72 patients with incomplete tumor removal. The assessment of pituitary function was performed in all patients before and every 1-2 yr after surgery and/or radiotherapy. Radiological and ophthalmologic assessment was performed before and 3, 6 and 12 months after surgery, then yearly. At diagnosis, headache and visual disturbances occurred in 63 and 58 patients, respectively, while deficiency of GH, TSH, ACTH, FSH, LH and ADH was documented in 55, 7, 19 47 and 6 patients, respectively. After surgery, gonadal function recovered in 12 women, visual disturbances improved in 43 patients (15 regained normal vision), pituitary function improved in 8 of 62 patients, worsened in 34 patients. At MRI, complete tumor removal was documented in 12 of 84 patients. After surgery alone, tumor regrowth was observed in 7 patients between 3-7 yr. After radiotherapy, vision improved in 9, remained unchanged in 49 and worsened in 1 of 59 patients. After radiotherapy, tumor regrowth was documented in 9 patients between 2-12 yr and the prevalence of hypopituitarism raised from 28.8% to 92% after 1 and 10 yr. In conclusion, surgery alone is effective only in a minority of patients (14.3%) and radiotherapy causes hypopituitarism in rather the totality of patients after 10 yr. The prevalence of tumor regrowth was similar in irradiated ones (15%) and non irradiated patients (28%; chi(2), p = 0.4). Therefore, a careful radiological followup is suggested after surgery so that radiotherapy can be performed promptly on the basis of clinical data, tumor regrowth and/or invasiveness documented at histology.

Adenoma↗
PubMed1998

Endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach to the sella: towards functional endoscopic pituitary surgery (FEPS).

Standard microscopical transsphenoidal surgery is used world-wide in most sellar lesions, but continuing technological progress leaves room for further possibilities. The authors have employed a slightly modified Jho-Carrau technique for endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal removal of pituitary lesions. This approach has been successfully used in 15 consecutive patients; the preliminary results are reported. The advantages and the limitations of this technique are discussed and compared to standard transsphenoidal surgery. In consideration of the low invasiveness of this approach and of the improved respect for the inner nose and sinus structures, the authors suggest the new term of Functional Endoscopic Pituitary Surgery (FEPS) to characterize this simple one-nostril endoscopic endonasal procedure.

Adenoma↗
PubMed1997

Supratentorial cavernous malformations and epilepsy: seizure outcome after lesionectomy on a series of 35 patients.

Epilepsy is the most frequent presenting sign in patients with cavernous angiomas and is the major cause of morbility. Persistence of seizures after surgical treatment prompted many authors to examine the possibility of removing the cavernoma and the surrounding tissue. In our series of 53 cavernous angiomas, all the 35 patients with preoperative seizures underwent surgery by means of lesionectomy alone. One hundred percent of patients with less than five preoperative seizures and/or an history under 12 months was seizure free, while only 62.5% of patients with more than five seizures and/or an history longer than 12 months was seizure free. Number and duration of seizures before surgery seems to be the most important factor in the seizure outcome after surgical treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Effect of octreotide pretreatment on surgical outcome in acromegaly.

Pretreatment with octreotide (OCT) in acromegaly has been reported to improve surgical outcome. The objective of this study was to analyze retrospectively the effects of a 3- to 6-month presurgical treatment with OCT in acromegalics focusing on electrocardiographic (ECG) records, blood pressure levels, glucose and lipid profile, tumor size and consistency, easy tumor removal at surgery, and morphological findings at pathology. Fifty-nine patients with acromegaly who were undergoing surgical treatment were studied randomly before surgery; 37 patients were untreated, and 22 were treated with OCT at doses ranging 150-600 micrograms/day for 3-6 months. At study entry, untreated and OCT-treated patients had similar circulating GH and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), glucose, and cholesterol levels as well as prevalence of overt diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and ECG abnormalities. In untreated and OCT-treated patients, respectively, radiological imaging documented microadenoma in 0 and 1, intrasellar macroadenoma in 10 and 6, intra- and suprasellar macroadenoma in 18 and 11, invasive macroadenoma in 9 and 4 patients. Before surgery, serum GH and IGF-I levels significantly decreased in the 22 OCT-treated acromegalics, and in 5 of them, a significant shrinkage was documented. ECG abnormalities disappeared in 7 of 11 (63.6%) OCT-treated patients. In 3 of the 7 patients with diabetes mellitus, treatment with OCT together with low carbohydrate intake normalized blood glucose levels, whereas in 2 patients, insulin could be replaced by oral antidiabetics, and in 2 patients, the insulin dose was reduced. Presurgical blood glucose, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as systolic (145.2 +/- 3.4 vs. 132.9 +/- 2.5 mm Hg; P < 0.01) and diastolic (94.3 +/- 1.7 vs. 84.3 +/- 1.6 mm Hg; P < 0.001) blood pressure levels were significantly higher in untreated than in OCT-treated patients. Two weeks after surgery, circulating GH and IGF-I levels were normalized in 11 untreated (29.7%) and 12 OCT-treated (54.5%) patients (P < 0.005, by chi 2 test). Macroscopically, no difference was found between untreated and OCT-treated adenomas, whereas at pathology, a significant increases in cellular atypia (31.6% vs. 19.2%; P < 0.05) was found in OCT-treated adenomas. One patients in the untreated group died from cardiorespiratory arrest during the early postoperative period. Finally, the average duration of hospitalization after operation was longer in untreated than in OCT-treated patients (8.6 +/- 0.7 vs. 5.6 +/- 0.5 days). We conclude that a 3- to 6-month treatment with OCT before surgery for GH-secreting adenoma improved clinical conditions and surgical outcome and reduced the duration of hospitalization after operation.

Acromegaly↗
PubMed1995

Luigi Rolando and his pioneering efforts to relate structure to function in the nervous system.

The fissure separating the motor from the sensory cortex and the substantia gelatinosa capping the posterior horn of the spinal cord are still known by the name of the Italian anatomist Rolando, Luigi Rolando was born in Turin, Italy, in 1773 and died in 1831. His life was not easy, the first of his problems being the death of his father when Rolando was still very young. Three people were to be influential in his life and career: Father Maffei, his maternal uncle who raised him; Dr. Cigna, the anatomy professor who discovered his talent; and Dr. Anformi, a general practitioner who introduced him to the practice of medicine and to the best circles of the city. Forced to leave Turin by the Napoleonic invasion of the country, Rolando first stopped in Florence, where he learned about anatomical dissection, drawing, and engraving and studied the appearance of nervous tissue under the microscope. Later he went to Sardinia where, although cut off from European cultural circles, he developed his major theories. Rolando pioneered the idea that brain functions could be differentiated and located in specific areas and discovered the fixed pattern of cerebral convolutions, highlighting motor and sensory gyri. He demonstrated the complexity of the central gray matter of the spinal cord, describing the "substantia gelatinosa," and he deduced that nervous structures are connected in a network of nervous fibers linked by electrical impulses. Rolando had to struggle for recognition, however, as the priority of his discoveries was challenged by the almost contemporaneous work of Gall and Spurzheim on cerebral localization and of Flourens on cerebellar function. Nevertheless, his efforts contributed greatly to the clarification of brain function. His observations on nervous anatomy have been especially accurate, as shown by the nomenclature "fissure of Rolando."

History, 19th Century↗
PubMed1995

Tumours of the callosal area: problems and surgical strategies.

Tumours of the callosal area are quite common. However, those primarily located in this region which remain confined within the corpus callosum area not frequent. The introduction of intraoperative location devices, coupled with preoperative MR, CT and angiography, has further enhanced the operability of lesions of the deep area around the callosal body. On the basis of their site of origin, three groups of tumours can be identified: tumours originating from the corpus callosum (defined as properly callosal); tumours secondarily invading the corpus callosum; tumours affecting the corpus callosum because of their surgical approach. Various routes have been developed to reach the callosal area, the site and direction of growth of the tumour providing indications for the preferred approach. The commonest routes are the following: interhemispheric approach; transcerebral approach; transcallosal approach; the transcallosal approach to the ventricles offers a valuable corridor in the management of intraventricular tumours. It provides a rapid and safe access, without the attendant epilepsy that often follows the transcortical approach. The neuro-psychological effect of callosotomy are minimal and not affecting the daily activities of patients. Thus it is possible to reach remote regions through a narrow entry with very low neuro-psychological impact.

Brain Neoplasms↗
PubMed1993

Ipsilateral motor symptoms caused by a right pterional meningioma.

The case is reported of a patient bearing a pterional meningioma on the right (non-dominant) side manifesting with ipsilateral motor symptoms, completely recovered after tumor removal. The occurrence of ipsilateral sensory and/or motor symptoms, probably due to direct or indirect involvement of the sensory/motor secondary areas of the insula of Reil, may be misleading in diagnosis because of apparent incongruity between clinical presentation and radiological findings. Only seven cases of such a condition, all localized on the left (dominant) side, have been previously reported.

Cerebral Cortex↗
PubMed1992

Clinical management of prolactinomas: a ten-year experience.

A ten-year experience on 36 patients bearing macroprolactinomas (MP) and 86 others bearing microprolactinomas (mP) is reported in this study. Different therapeutical approaches were used: 1) trans-sphenoidal surgery in 24 patients with MP and in 25 with mP; 2) medical therapy with the oral form of bromocriptine (BRC) in all the 24 patients with MP previously subjected to surgery, in 48 patients with mP ab initio, and in 16 out of 25 patients with mP previously subjected to surgery; 3) medical therapy with the long-acting injectable forms of BRC in 12 MP- and 13 mP-bearing patients, and 4) conventional radiotherapy in 12 of the 24 patients with MP previously subjected to surgery. The follow-up, performed five years after surgery, showed that: a) all the 24 patients with MP but one had normal PRL levels during BRC administration, with a rebound of hyperprolactinemia in all cases after withdrawal; b) during the treatment BRC caused normalization of PRL in 15 of the 16 mP-bearing patients surgically treated and in all the 48 mP-bearing patients only treated with BRC; c) in 20 of the 25 patients the treatment with injectable retard BRC caused the normalization of plasma PRL and the shrinkage of the tumor mass in all the patients with MP but one, as revealed by seriate CT scans. In conclusion, the surgical treatment of prolactinomas was ineffective to normalize plasma PRL levels in most patients whereas BRC, in standard or in retard forms, was able to normalize plasma PRL levels, reduce the tumoral mass and preserve the pituitary residual tissue. BRC should be, therefore, used as first choice therapy both for MP and mP.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Hemodilution and revascularization for early treatment of stroke: an experimental trial.

A new experimental trial to investigate the usefulness of early therapeutic measures in case of acute I.V.D. has been performed, on the basis of a previous already reported experience. A combined treatment consisting of hemodilution and revascularization starting 16 hours after the onset of cerebral ischemia was tested. The study was performed in a population of 20 New Zealand male rabbits in which an acute cerebral ischemia was achieved by means of extracranial ligation of both common carotid artery and of one vertebral artery. The animals were divided into two groups. 1st group: no treatment; 2nd group: revascularization + hemodilution. Better results were observed in treated group considering either CBF rates or histological changes.

Acute Disease↗