Erkut Baha Bulduk

Stereotactic biopsy of the brain mass lesions: a tertiary hospital experience

Objectives: Stereotactic biopsy (SB) is a guided technic performed for the lesions on eloquent brain areas. The aim of this study is revealing the diagnostic reliability and the risk ratio of SB. Methods: Data of patients performed SB due to various intracranial lesions was collected retrospectively. The study took place in Department of Neurosurgery, Gazi University Faculty of Medicine between February 2004 and April 2014. Data analysis performed in terms of age, gender, lesion location, histopathology, and outcomes of surgery. Results: Sixty percent of patients were male (146 patients) and forty percent of them was female (96 patients), between the ages of 11 and 84 years (mean age of 49 years) with a total number of 242. Mortality and morbidity rates were respectively 0.4% and 3.3%. The overall diagnostic yield was 81% (196 patients), while 19% (46 patients) had nonspecific results, which did cannot lead any further therapy. Among 36 patients of whom pathologies were confirmed with an excisional biopsy, the diagnostic accuracy was shown in 24 patients (67%). Conclusions: Beside low risk of mortality and morbidity, the high rate of non-diagnostic results and low rate of diagnostic accuracy are the limitations of SB, which should be improved by careful skills to obtain more specimen, sophisticated software for planning, and intraoperative pathological examination for guaranteeing.

Spine Tango in Turkish: Development of a Local Registry System.

AIM Successfully established registry systems, rather than personal efforts to collect data, are required to record, analyze, compare and secure patient related data. Unfortunately, our country does not have such patient registry systems for spinal pathologies and surgeries at this time. In order to fill this gap in patient management in Turkey, the authors adopted already established Spine Tango registry system in a unique way answering the requirements of our health system. This article aims to present the adaptation process of Spine Tango forms for use in Turkish and describe the first implementation with 50 patients treated for spinal pathologies in a tertiary referral center. MATERIAL AND METHODS In 2011, an effort was initiated by the first author to translate the original Spine Tango forms into Turkish. Funding for this project was provided by authors themselves. With the assistance of a Spine Tango team, the translation process was completed. The Turkish forms were then used in an academic institution with a high spinal workload. A local solution was developed by the authors using commercially available software and mobile instruments. This system was tested with 50 spine patients from June 2012 to January 2013. RESULTS The analysis of the data gathered using the new Turkey Spine Tango registry system was successful. CONCLUSION In an environment of exponentially increasing medical data, successfully established registry systems have the potential to facilitate patient management. The authors recommend the use of Turkish Spine Tango forms for clinics performing spinal interventions.