Advances and Technical Standards in Neurosurgery

The volume shares the same architecture as the previous volumes in the ATSN series, offering a balanced distribution of chapters dealing with recent advances in neurosurgery and reviews of the current status of the main neurosurgical pathological entities. The common denominator of the first chapters is the development of instruments and techniques that facilitate a minimally invasive approach to various regions of the brain and cranio-vertebral junction. Chapters 7, 8 and 9 are to be considered the main core of the volume and present a detailed review of tumours, such as those of the optic pathways and hypothalamus and pituitary adenomas, whose multi-specialist treatment is currently being reconsidered and characterised by a renewed interest in the surgical option. Chapter 10, on colloid cysts of the third ventricle, completes the description of the surgical approaches currently available for anterior skull base and frontal basal region pathologies with the chapters just mentioned. Cerebral arterial aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations are the subject of 3 chapters exploring the advantages of combined therapeutic strategies for safer and more effective management of these complex lesions. Finally, the last two chapters are devoted respectively to spinal lipomas and cerebral lobectomy in the treatment of malignant cerebral gliomas. These two chapters share the goal of investigating the prophylactic nature of complete excision of spinal lipomas versus partial resections and the more extensive excision of brain tissue harbouring a glioblastoma, i.e. lobectomy, versus simple resection of the tumour and its infiltration into the surrounding brain parenchyma. The whole book is mainly addressed to mature and experienced neurosurgeons, but young neurosurgeons will also benefit from it, appreciating the emphasised attitude towards a continuous reconsideration of well-known diseases in terms of new approaches characterised byincreased efficacy combined with decreased risk for the patient.