Paul Edward Kaloostian

In the ER, the OR, and in the waiting room where the doctors deliver heart stopping news to the families of their patients, a neurosurgeon’s apprenticeship is arduous. This memoir of the day-to-day experiences of a resident in neurosurgery at one of the nation’s busiest trauma centers provides a rare window into the training of the doctors who open patients’ skulls and operate on their brains and spinal cords. Paul Kaloostian’s intimate account describes both the lifesaving feats and tragic failures that are the daily ups and downs of twenty-firstcentury neurosurgery. Kaloostian shares the lessons of humility, faith, and compassion that were often more important than the surgical expertise he acquired in the operating room.

Pediatric Neurosurgery is a complex subspecialty. The pathology is so diverse and the patients so fragile. We have tried to illustrate common as well as the more rare pathological conditions that afflict the pediatric population. I learned much from my attendings and senior residents, but each case was yet again so different that I wished there was some text that would describe the thought processes and management for these patients. This way I would be more prepared to understand the patient's disease and speak to the patient and family with more experience and specifics. Thus, we have decided to write this text for the senior and junior residents as well as the medical students. We delve into defining the differential diagnoses for a variety of intracranial and spinal pathology. We go through the thought processes in treating and managing such patients. We have real cases with full high definition pictures. This is a culmination of over 6 years of patient care in pediatric neurosurgery.

This is the first edition of the Pediatric Neurology Clinical Vignettes Textbook. This topic is truly fascinating. The cases described are real life cases experienced by the authors and each tells a different tale about pediatric neurological disorders. We present cases and detail questions that highlight unique aspects of the diagnosis and treatment of the case. Each of these stories has provided insight for the authors in their journey through medicine and we wanted to share these stories with you. We hope that as you read through this text you will come to learn more about diagnosing and treating a variety of pediatric neurological disorders. This material can be useful not only to residents in neurology and neurosurgery in preparation for the board examinations, but also residents in pediatrics and medicine, as well as medical students and nurses at all stages. Please enjoy!

Vascular Neurosurgery is an exciting yet complex field. Surgeons are able to enter into the human brain and dissect out blood vessels that supply important functions. However putting too much distortion on blood vessels causes them to go into spasm which may cause a stroke. Pathology in vascular neurosurgery, as in any field of neurosurgery, is extremely diverse. Diseases range from unruptured intracranial aneurysms to massive hemorrhagic arteriovenous malformations to congenital vascular anomalies. But dangers lurk at every corner. We put together this textbook of vascular neurosurgical vignettes to help teach students and residents in all fields about a variety of clinical scenarios that they may be presented with in the emergency room, intensive care unit, or in the operating room. This text utilizes over 7 years of vascular clinical vignettes and displays the neurointerventional aspects of neurosurgery as well which has become more popular over the last few decades.

NeuroOncology is a fascinating subspecialization in Neurosurgery. Much research is being conducted worldwide trying to understand more about cancer. While we have improved much in our delivery of care, our patients still often succumb to the cancer. As a neurosurgery resident, I have had the privilege of working with the masters in this field and I have had the pleasure of learning about the lives of many patients both pre-operatively and post-operatively. They each seem to have such strong stories to tell and I sit there listening in awe. Thus, we decided to document all the cases we have encountered in residency, noting certain aspects of each case we felt were critical toward attempting to treat them. And so we ended up authoring this text with the goal of simplifying the immense data in NeuroOncology so that the student and junior residents may have a text to use that would guide them in treating various pathology.

Neurosurgical trauma is quite common, especially at high volume level 1 trauma centers around the world. The brain and spine often absorb a significant amount of the forces and thus are subject to enormous injury. Neurosurgical trauma is extremely diverse ranging from the most minor of intracranial bleeds to the significant anoxic brain injury and quadriplegia. Many of these cases are considered neurosurgical emergencies and so immediate diagnosis and management are key. In this textbook, we have tried to illustrate many unique cases we have encountered in our training. These cases have taught us a great deal about management and surgical treatment options for a variety of different neurosurgical trauma cases. We hope that the readers will learn valuable methods of diagnosis and management of their patients after reading this text. This text can be used by anyone interested in learning more about neurological trauma.

The medical literature is enormous. It is filled with information that is growing as you are reading this sentence. Having entered the realm of medical school and residency, it is very difficult to gather and master the information that is most critical. After much review of current USMLE Board preparation texts, we have attempted to create a more concise and focused text that addresses the heart of the major issues that are not only commonly tested but also encountered as one is taking care of sick patients. We have put much thought and effort into providing a text that can be used by pre-medical and medical students, as well as physicians and those in all scientific fields. Our goal is to provide an avenue of knowledge that can be used to heal that which is most important to us: Our Patients! Enjoy!

This is a USMLE Step 2 Board Review Textbook written by three physicians currently in residency. They share insights into learning the immense material required to be a knowledgeable and dedicated physician.

What physicians see on a daily basis is profound. They see life and death. They also see everything in between. Though it is not always a rose garden, it can be one of the most wonderful and unique experiences that life has to offer. This collection of poetry is for those who wish to travel into the mind of a young physician and experience the long journey endured.