New anticoagulants, reversal agents, and clinical considerations for perioperative practice

Management principles of cranial base tumor with aneurysm

Skull base tumors are challenging to treat because of their deep location, complex anatomy, and close proximity to important blood vessels and nerves. Furthermore, some patients with cranial tumors are found to have aneurysms, but there is no consensus on how to evaluate the impact of aneurysms on surgery and how to handle the lesions safely and effectively. We retrospectively reviewed our database to identify all patients with a skull base tumor treated in the Department of Neurosurgery of Beijing Tiantan Hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University from 2019 to 2021. The records of patients with skull base tumors associated with aneurysms were analyzed. The operative methods and postoperative follow-up information were collected. We analyzed a total of 481 patients with skull base tumors, comprising 224 males and 257 females with a mean age of 48 ± 14 years. Twenty-four patients (24/481, 5.0%) were diagnosed with aneurysms. For eight patients, it was considered necessary to perform aneurysm treatment before or during the tumor resection surgery. For the other 16 patients, the recommendation was to monitor the aneurysm or perform elective aneurysm treatment after tumor resection. All patients with both skull base tumors and aneurysms benefited from treatment. No severe postoperative complications occurred. We summarized the final treatment plan for all patients with skull base tumors with aneurysms and proposed a protocol to decrease the surgical risk of patients with skull base tumors associated with aneurysms.

Semi-empirical anticoagulation model (SAM): INR monitoring during Warfarin therapy

The International Normalized Ratio (INR) monitoring is an essential component to manage thrombotic disease therapy. This study presents a semi-empirical model of INR as a function of time and assigned therapy (Warfarin, k-vitamin). With respect to other methodologies, this model is able to describe the INR using a limited number of parameters and is able to describe the time variation of INR described in the literature. The presented methodology showed great accuracy in model calibration [(trueness (precision)]: 0.2% (0.1%) to 1.2% (0.3%) for coagulation factors, from 5% (9%) to 9.7% (12%) for Warfarin-related parameters and 38% (40%) for K-vitamin-related parameters. The latter value was considered acceptable given the assumptions made in the model. It has two other important results: the first is that it was able to correctly estimate INR with respect to daily therapy doses taken from the literature. The second is that it introduces a single numeric semi-empirical parameter that is able to correlate INR/dose response to physiological and environmental condition of patients.

Complications of Dentoalveolar Surgery

This article explores how to prevent and manage complications of dentoalveolar surgery. Many complications are avoidable. Surgical skills and knowledge of anatomy play an important role in prevention of complications. Prevention starts with detailed history and physical examination of the patient. Key to perioperative management of patients is risk assessment. Without a proper history and physical examination, the clinician is unable to assess the risk of performing surgery and anesthesia for each patient. Some illnesses and medications increase the risk of complications. The following complications are discussed: alveolar osteitis, displacement, fracture, hemorrhage, infection, nonhealing wound, oroantral communication, swelling, and trismus.