The Outcome of Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy in a Mixed Population of Adult and Pediatric Patients

Background: Endoscopic third ventriculocisternostomy (ETV) is the most common neuroendoscopic technique in the treatment of noncommunicating hydrocephalus. Since its introduction, ETV has been a safe alternative to ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VP shunt), which has a high complication rate with significant socio-economic consequences. The authors report the results of ETV performed in the neurosurgical department of FANN teaching hospital in Dakar. Methods: This retrospective study presents the results of ETV performed in 513 patients with hydrocephalus of various etiologies, ranging from February 2010 to February 2018. We have included in our series from 2010 to 2016, all patients with clinically revealed non-communicating hydrocephalus followed by a brain computed tomography (CT) scan or brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and who have benefited from an ETV, in which the ETV Success Score was evaluated. Results: The mean age of our patients was 14.10 years, with 298 (58%) males. The clinical symptomatology varied in both children and adults and manifested in children as macrocrania in 67.8% of the patients, while in adults, it manifested as raised intracranial pressure (ICP) in 87.5% of patients. A brain CT scan was performed in 461 (89.86%) of patients. The causes of hydrocephalus were dominated in 49% of patients by malformative pathologies, followed by tumors in 41% of patients, infections in 2.33% of patients, and normal-pressure hydrocephalus in 3.8% of patients. During the postoperative period, we found 21.41% of various complications. Conclusions: The findings in our series were compared to those in the literature and were satisfactory, thus proving the effectiveness and safety of ventriculocisternostomy in our department. In resource-limited countries, ETV can be performed with good results and less mortality and morbidity.

Brain Metastases: Epidemiological, Clinical, Diagnosis, Treatment and Outcome Features in Dakar

Brain metastases (BM) are the most frequent brain cancer. There are few studies on BM in Senegal. The aim of this study was to describe epidemiological, clinical, diagnosis, treatment and outcome features of patients diagnosed with BM. We conducted a retrospective and descriptive study of patients diagnosed with brain tumors and regularly followed at the neurosurgery department of the “Fann Teaching Hospital (CHNU-Fann)” of Dakar (Senegal) between from January 2010 to December 2017. The medical records of all the patients with evidence histologically diagnosed with BM were reviewed. In our study, 682 medical records of patients with brain tumors were reviewed, and only 20 showed histological evidence of BM (2.9%). The mean age was 45.45 years. The sex-ratio was 0.43. Brain CT scan was performed in all the patients (100%) and brain MRI in 3 patients. The brain lesions were multiple in 70% of the patients and single in 30%. The histological type of BM was adenocarcinoma (55%) and squamous cell carcinoma (45%). Five types of primary cancers were found: lung cancer (50%), breast cancer (30%), colorectal cancer (10%), melanoma (5%) and one undetermined cancer. All the patients had extirpation surgery;50% of the patients died 7 days after the surgery;25% had a survival of 3 months after the surgery and 25% of the patients were lost of sight. Conclusion: The improvement of the screening and diagnosis tests, and the use of the radiation treatment and chemotherapy could allow early management and decrease the death’s frequency of the patients with BM in Senegal.