The incidence of spontaneous intracerebral hematoma (SICH) is even now high worldwide, especially higher in Japan than in Western countries, despite the development of advances in blood pressure (BP) management and food/alcohol intake education. Although mortality and morbidity for SICH are high, some controversies remain regarding the appropriate acute phase of treatment. Recent studies have revealed that BP lowering treatment than 140 mmHg resulted in better outcomes. However the efficacy of surgical treatment for SICH has not been well established, with the exception of that for cerebellar SICH over 3 cm in diameter and life-saving procedures, although many randomized control studies and systematic reviews focused on surgical treatment have been reported. In this review, we summarize some issues and discuss strategies in development for the treatment of SICH.

The number of elderly patients with an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) has been increasing in aging- or aged societies in many countries. A treatment strategy for the elderly with aSAH has not been established, although many studies have been published emphasizing poor outcome for aSAH. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors and treatments affecting outcome in aSAH in the elderly in a systematic review of the literature by investigating patients over age 75. A literature search was done for “elderly aSAH” in PubMed and Embase. Literature with a clear description of treatment measures for aneurysmal occlusion and outcome was selected. Twelve studies, consisted of 816 cases, met the eligibility criteria. Patient characteristics included 83.2% female, 33.8% poor clinical grade on admission, 57.1% Fischer group 3, and 41% internal carotid artery aneurysm. As complications, symptomatic vasospasm was seen in 25.5% of patients, hydrocephalus in 31.1%, and medical complication in 38.4%. Favorable outcome was 35.0% in total, 45.3% for clipping, 36.3% for coiling, and 9.0% for conservative treatment. Several studies by multivariate analysis indicated that poor clinical grade on admission could be a risk factor for neurological outcome and mortality. Advanced age and selection of conservative treatment without aneurysmal occlusion could be a risk factor for mortality. Patients under age 85 with good clinical grade on admission can be candidates for treatment of aneurysm repair. However, treatment for patients over age 85 or with poor clinical grade should be carefully determined.

Functional vascular anatomy is the study of anatomy in its relation to the function that figures out the normal and pathological vascularization of the brain and spinal cord. The mechanism of anatomical variations (e.g. fenestration of the basilar artery, persistent primitive trigeminal artery, and aberrant subclavian artery) can be explained according to the embryological development of the cardiovascular system. The most developmental process is common among the species of the vertebrates from the fish to the mammalian in the early phase of embryo. Thus, it is possible to deduce the reasons of vascular variants in terms of phylogeny. Such an embryological parallelism like the comparative anatomy provides the new insights into the nature of our vascular system. In addition, learning more about the hemodynamic consequence may help to realize the underlying physiopathology of cerebral arterial remodeling and stroke in patients with these vascular variants. This perception may facilitate better understanding of the vascular pathologies and lead to the appropriate decision making not only in the diagnostic work, but also in the interventional procedures. The aim of this study is to introduce the meanings of functional anatomy in the clinical application of vascular diseases and anomalous of the central nervous system.

Ischemic tolerance is an endogenous neuroprotective phenomenon induced by sublethal ischemia. Ischemic preconditioning (IPC), the first discovered form of ischemic tolerance, is widely seen in many species and in various organs including the brain and the spinal cord. Ischemic tolerance of the spinal cord is less familiar among neurosurgeons, although it has been reported from the viewpoint of preventing ischemic spinal cord injury during aortic surgery. It is important for neurosurgeons to have opportunities to see patients with spinal cord ischemia, and to understand ischemic tolerance of the spinal cord as well as the brain. IPC has a strong neuroprotective effect in animal models of ischemia; however, clinical application of IPC for ischemic brain and spinal diseases is difficult because they cannot be predicted. In addition, one drawback of preconditioning stimuli is that they are also capable of producing injury with only minor changes to their intensity or duration. Numerous methods to induce ischemic tolerance have been discovered that vary in their timing and the site at which short-term ischemia occurs. These methods include ischemic postconditioning (IPoC), remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC), remote ischemic perconditioning (RIPerC) and remote ischemic postconditioning (RIPoC), which has had a great impact on clinical approaches to treatment of ischemic brain and spinal cord injury. Especially RIPerC and RIPoC to induce spinal cord tolerance are considered clinically useful, however the evidence supporting these methods is currently insufficient; further experimental or clinical research in this area is thus necessary.

Accurate and long-term transposition of offending vessels is required in microvascular decompression (MVD) for the treatment of hemifacial spasm (HFS) and trigeminal neuralgia (TN). We created ion-beam implanted of an expanded-polytetrafluoroethylene (i-ePTFE) surface to transpose offending vessels in MVD. In 13 patients with MVD, we concealed and transposed offending vessels with tape-shaped i-ePTFE, and relieved facial and trigeminal nerve compression by attaching the i-ePTFE to the dura with fibrin glue. After surgery, none of the patients reported further symptoms or experienced recurrence of symptoms up to 12 months post-surgery. Favorable surgical outcomes are obtainable, since i-ePTFE has high tissue affinity and is easy to manipulate, even under a narrow and deep operative field. Our results suggested that i-ePTFE is very useful for transposition in MVD.

The p.R4810K (rs11273543, c.14429G > A) variant of the RNF213 gene is associated with increased risk of Moyamoya disease (MMD), which is an idiopathic progressive intracranial vascular steno-occlusive disease, in Asian populations. Numerous variant association studies for this MMD variant have been performed in Japan to date. Since another genetic study that utilized approximately 140,000 single nucleotide polymor (SNPs) has indicated that there still are genetic differences among mainland Japanese, there is a possibility that the variant distribution in patients with MMD and normal individuals varies between different Japanese regions. Additionally, the majority of variant association studies have used Sanger sequencing, which is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly. In this study, we analyzed the frequency of the variant genotype in patients with MMD and normal individuals in Kyushu using pyrosequencing, which is an accurate, cost-effective, and automated method. We found differences in the genotype frequencies in familial patients from Kyushu and normal populations in Tohoku compared with west Japan, which suggested that there were differences in the frequency of the variant among different regions in Japan.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mild hypothermia therapy (34–36°C) and the alterations of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in 20 patients with high-risk traumatic brain injury (TBI). The neurologic status and outcome were assessed using Full Outline of UnResponsiveness (FOUR) score and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). A prospective randomized control study involved patients with high-risk TBI (FOUR score ≤ 7). Patients were randomized into two groups, with and without mild hypothermia therapy which were investigated within 24 and 72 h. The MMP-9 level, MMP-9 mRNA expression and -1562 C/T polymorphism were estimated using enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA), reversing transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Different levels of these variables were compared in the two groups. In the hypothermia group, the expression of MMP-9 mRNA and the level of serum MMP-9 were significantly decreased (P < 0.05) within 72 h. There was a highly significant correlation between the expression of MMP-9 mRNA and the level of MMP-9 protein (R² = 0.741, r = 0.861, P < 0.05). The study did not find in -1562 C/T polymorphism. The patients’ outcome was improved significantly after mild hypothermia therapy (P < 0.05). The data obtained from this study show that mild hypothermia therapy down regulated the expression of MMP-9 mRNA, the MMP-9 protein level and increased the FOUR score and GCS in high-risk TBI patients within 72 h.