Hamish Stewart Alexander

Royal Brisbane Hospital | RBWH · Department of Neurosurgery

Largely attributed to the tyranny of distance, timely transfer of patients with major traumatic brain injuries (TBI) from rural or regional hospitals to metropolitan trauma centres is not always feasible. This has warranted emergent craniotomies to be undertaken by non‐neurosurgeons at their local hospitals with previous acceptable results reported...

Kenneth G Jamieson described the emergent craniotomy for traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in the rural and regional setting back in 1965 in his book ‘A First Notebook Of Head Injury’. Since then, there has been successful use of the technique in peripheral hospitals prior to the safe transfer of patients to metropolitan trauma centres. Although the p...

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common oncological diagnoses worldwide. Accurate staging and restaging imaging continue to be a priority in clinical practice as 20% to 30% of patients present with advanced metastatic disease at diagnosis, and 20% to 30% develop recurrence after surgical resection. We present a case of a 71-year-old ma...

Quadrantanopia caused by inadvertent severing of Meyer's Loop of the optic radiation is a well-recognised complication of temporal lobectomy for conditions such as epilepsy. Dissection studies indicate that the anterior extent of Meyer's Loop varies considerably between individuals. Quantifying this for individual patients is thus an important step...

Pineal germinoma is rare with high cure rates following craniospinal radiotherapy. Efforts to reduce the radiotherapy dose and field via combination with chemotherapy suggest comparable disease control and reduced neurocognitive impairments, while the efficacy of immunotherapy in pineal germinoma remains undetermined. This report aimed to review cl...

Although pituitary macroadenomas often cause mass effects on surrounding structures, it is extremely rare for pituitary lesions to disturb cerebrospinal fluid circulation. Sellar gangliocytoma-pituitary adenomas (SGPAs) are also extremely rare. Here we report the unique case of a man with the unusual combination of acromegaly from an SGPA, who pres...

Quadrantanopia caused by inadvertent severing of Meyer’s Loop of the optic radiation is a well-recognised complication of temporal lobectomy for conditions such as epilepsy. Dissection studies indicate that the anterior extent of Meyer’s Loop varies considerably between individuals. Quantifying this for individual patients is thus an important step...

Classic type intradural extramedullary (IDEM) ependymomas of the lumbar spine are rare entities. Only two such cases have previously been reported in the literature. Here the authors report a new case and describe radiological, surgical and histological findings as well as review the literature. Unlike previously encountered lumbar IDEM ependymomas...

Intraventricular abscess is a rare pathology. We present a case of primary intraventricular abscess in an immunocompetent 22 year old male. We review the literature and discuss our management of this case with aspiration via neuroendoscopy.

Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumour (DNET) is a benign tumour characterised by cortical location and presentation with drug resistant partial seizures in children. Recently the potential for malignant transformation has been reported, however progression without malignant transformation remains rare. We report a case of clinical and radiologic...

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most aggressive human brain malignancies. Even with optimal treatment, median survival is less than six months for patients with recurrent GBM. Immune-based therapies have the potential to improve patient outcome by supplementing standard treatment. Expression of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigens in GB...

Rarely, midline or unilateral posterior fossa arachnoid cysts (ACs) exert local mass effect resulting in the symptoms and signs of cerebellar and brainstem dysfunction. These cysts are sometimes seen in conjunction with cerebellar tonsillar ectopia (TE), although the relationship between these two entities is unclear. Bilateral ACs in the posterior...

Objective To assess our clinical experience in treating midline intracranial pathology using minimally invasive surgical techniques. Design Retrospective chart review of patients undergoing endoscopic endonasal resection of clival chordomas. Setting Two tertiary referral centers in Australia and New Zealand. Main Outcome Measures Patients were asse...

Anterior cranial fossa (ACF) meningiomas are difficult to surgically manage. Endoscopic transnasal approaches have increasingly been used as a minimally invasive route and thus offer significant advantages. However, a paucity of literature describing the intraoperative challenges and postoperative outcomes of this technique still exists. Case serie...

A retrospective analysis of 301 patients was undertaken between 1993 and 2003 to evaluate the relationship of ethnicity with incidence, treatment and survival in patients undergoing surgery for high grade glioma (HGG) in New Zealand. There was no difference in age standardised incidence of HGG in Māori compared to non-Māori patients; 4.2/100,000 pe...

Advances in transsphenoidal endoscopic surgery have allowed difficult clival tumours such as meningiomas causing effacement of the pons and basilar artery to be approached by this technique. We report a clival meningioma resected via a transsphenoidal endoscopic approach.

Primary spinal primitive neuroectodermal tumours are rare. We present a 45-year-old man with a peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumour arising in the cervical spine. We believe this to be the first report of this type of tumour in the cervical spine.

To review the demographic factors, mechanism of injury and treatment recommendations for patients attending a concussion clinic in New Zealand. Retrospective analysis of data for all patients attending a concussion clinic in a single centre over a 2-year period. Data was collected via an electronic database and written clinical records. Data from a...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of an antisense ologodeoxynucleotide (AS-ODN), complementary to the initiation codon of rat c-fos mRNA, on Fos protein expression in the medial vestibular nuclei (MVN) and behavioural recovery ('vestibular compensation') following unilateral labyrinthectomy (UL) in guinea pig. The AS-ODN (...