Individual Neurosurgeons Research Articles

Infective and Traumatic Aneurysms

Traumatic intracranial aneurysms are rare lesions but should be considered in penetrating head injury, particularly in cases of low-velocity gunshot wounds or stab wounds to the head. Because most of these aneurysms are false aneurysms, treatment may require excision or trapping procedures.

Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery Using CRW-3 Stereotaxy

The Cosman-Roberts-Wells (CRW-3) scanner independent stereotactic system is a recent arc-radius design developed from the Brown-Roberts-Wells system. The results of 74 supratentorial non-basal tumor suspect cases treated with this second generation computed tomography (CT) guided stereotactic apparatus are presented. Using a simple stereotactic target classification coupled with biopsy, trephine or mini-craniotomy, it has been possible to biopsy, excise and develop new strategies using microneurosurgical techniques with extremely low morbidity.

Economies of scale, physician volume for neurosurgery patients, and the diagnosis-related group prospective hospital payment system

Hospitals face an increasingly competitive environment in the era of diagnostic related group (DRG) prospective pricing. Further reductions in Medicare outlays relative to hospital costs are likely, given the looming federal deficit. We analyzed the relationship of individual neurosurgical volume, hospital costs, and outcome. All neurosurgical patients (n = 1002) treated for a 3-year period at our large academic medical center were grouped into those treated by low-volume neurosurgeons versus those treated by high-volume neurosurgeons (arbitrarily defined by us); 95% of patients admitted for neurosurgical procedures fit into one of these two categories. Patients of low-volume neurosurgeons had higher hospital costs (even after correction for DRG case-mix and severity of illness) (P less than 0.01), a much worse financial position under DRGs (P less than 0.01), but a similar outcome for both emergency and nonemergency admissions when compared to patients of higher volume neurosurgeons. Pearson correlation showed an inverse relationship between declining cost per patient and increasing neurosurgical volume for both nonemergency patients -0.340 (P less than 0.0001), and emergency patients, -0.321 (P less than 0.0001). These findings suggest that the volume of neurosurgical procedures performed by an individual neurosurgeon is related to hospital resource utilization. This study also suggests that the DRG prospective payment system could provide incentives that may affect both neurosurgical practice and the access to neurosurgical care.