LAUSR

Neurosurgery is one of the oldest and most difficult surgical sub-specialties, because the risk of creating damage is extremely high. In this scenario, the technological and procedural development has been very important to optimize a surgical action as limited as possible on the operative target. In this context, a major improvement has been allowed by stereotaxis and functional neurosurgery. Using these approaches, surgical objectives may be achieved with extreme precision by locating them both through imaging and functional stimulation. This book is an important contribution, either for the very high scientific and didactic level of contributors or for the extensive and deep analysis of all the most important issues involved in the field. The editors of this publication are Jeffrey A Brown, Neurosurgery’s Director at the NYU-Winthrop Hospital Cyberknife program, New York, and Julie G Pilitsis and Michael Schulder, Professors of Neurosurgery at the D. and B. Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Hampstead in New York, respectively, Chair and vice Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery. They have invited some of the major international experts in the specific involved topics to write the following 41 chapters: (1) History of Innovation in Stereotaxy/Functional Neurosurgery; (2) A Brief History of Brain Stereotactic Frames; (3) Frameless Navigation; (4) MRI and CT Imaging with Stereotactic Neurosurgery; (5) Functional Neuroimaging II: fMRI and Resting State MRI; (6) Functional Neuroimaging II; (7) Intraoperative CT Imaging; (8) Microelectrode Recordings in Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery for Movement Disorders; (9) Cortical and Subcortical Mapping; (10) Parkinson Disease–Evaluation and Medical Treatment; (11) Surgery for Parkinson’s Disease; (12) Essential Tremor: Evaluation, Imaging and Medical Treatment; (13) Surgery for Essential Tremor; (14) Dystonia: Evaluation, Imaging and Medical Treatment; (15) Surgical Treatment of Dystonia; (16) Deep Brain Stimulation for Rare Movement Disorders; (17) Lesioning versus Deep Brain Stimulation for Movement Disorders; (18) Spasticity: Evaluation, Medical and Preoperative Considerations; (19) Surgery for Spasticity: Rhizotomy and Intrathecal Therapy; (20) Epilepsy: Preoperative Evaluation, EEG and Imaging; (21) Epilepsy: Temporal Lobectomy with Invasive Monitoring; (22) Epilepsy: Extra-Temporal Surgery with Invasive Monitoring; (23) Neuromodulation in Epilepsy; (24) Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy for Epilepsy; (25) Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Epilepsy; (26) Neuroethics Essentials in Functional Neurosurgery for Neurobehavioral Disorders; (27) Depression; (28) Functional Neurosurgery for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; (29) Neurosurgery Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa; (30) Anterior Capsulotomy for Treatment of Refractory Schizophrenia; (31) Alzheimer’s Disease: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology and Surgery; (32) Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus; (33) Principles of Chronic Nociceptive and Neuropathic Pain; (34) Neuromodulation for Neuropathic Pain; (35) Spinal Cord Stimulation Using High Frequency and Burst Waveform Variation; (36) Ablative Procedures for Trigeminal Neuralgia; (37) Principles of Trigeminal Neuralgia; (38) Intraoperative Neurophysiologic Monitoring during Microvascular Decompression for Trigeminal Neuralgia; (39) Neuroprosthetics; (40) Exoskeletons; (41) Visual Prostheses. As it can be understood, the main fields of applications are in the treatment of patients with movement disorders, such as tremor, dystonia, spasticity, and Parkinson’s disease. Useful results may be also obtained in subjects with other neuropsychiatric disorders such as inadequately treated epilepsy, * Luigi Mansi [email protected]