A Study of 100 Cases of Cervical Schwannoma Treated with Inter-Capsular Resection

Background: Cervical schwannoma is a relatively rare disease, and it is difficult to experience many surgical cases because it may be followed up without surgery. We examined 100 patients who underwent inter-capsular resection for cervical schwannomas at our center and classified the patients according to the nerve of origin. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 100 patients who underwent inter-capsular resection for cervical schwannoma at our center from April 2005 to September 2019. We examined the patient’s characteristics including age, sex, tumor size (maximum diameter), origin nerve, preoperative symptoms, and postoperative neurological deficits for all cases. We classified the cases according to the nerve of origin and the occurrence of postoperative neurological deficits. Results: The occurrence of postoperative neurological deficit for all cases was as follows: “none” was 73%, “temporary paralysis” was 21%, and “permanent paralysis” was 6%. In the case of vagus nerve: “none” was 65.4%, “temporary paralysis” was 23.1%, “permanent paralysis” was 11.5%. In the case of sympathetic nerve: “none” was 64.7%, “temporary paralysis” was 29.4%, “permanent paralysis” was 5.9%. In the case of brachial plexus: “none” was 87.0%, “temporary paralysis” was 13.0%, “permanent paralysis” was 0%. In the case of cervical and accessory nerves: “none” was 86.4%, “temporary paralysis” was 13.6%, “permanent paralysis” was 0%. In the case of facial nerve: “none” was 0%, “temporary paralysis” was 80.0%, “permanent paralysis” was 20%. In the case of lingual nerve: “none” was 80.0%, “temporary paralysis” was 20.0%, “permanent paralysis” was 0%. Conclusions: Inter-capsular resection is useful for the treatment of cervical schwannoma and a simple comparison is difficult, but probably with good results. This study provides information that will be useful for the treatment of cervical schwannoma.

Progress in neural plasticity

One of the properties of the nervous system is the use-dependent plasticity of neural circuits.The structure and function of neural circuits are susceptible to changes induced by prior neuronal activity,as reflected by short-and long-term modifications of synaptic efficacy and neuronal excitability.Regarded as the most attractive cellular mechanism underlying higher cognitive functions such as learning and memory,activity-dependent synaptic plasticity has been in the spotlight of modern neuroscience since 1973 when activity-induced long-term potentiation(LTP) of hippocampal synapses was first discovered.Over the last 10 years,Chinese neuroscientists have made notable contributions to the study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity,as well as of the plasticity beyond synapses,including activity-dependent changes in intrinsic neuronal excitability,dendritic integration functions,neuron-glia signaling,and neural network activity.This work highlight some of these significant findings.