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The authors review the most important contributions of Pierre Marie to the elucidation and description of several neurological diseases, such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth's disease and hereditary cerebellar ataxia, as well as his contributions to Internal Medicine, including his pioneering studies on acromegaly, ankylosing spondylitis, and hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy. His works led to incontestable advances in the medical sciences that transcended his time.

Objective: To determine the outcomes of 354 radiofrequency rhizotomies and 21 neurovascular decompressions performed as treatment for 367 facial pain patients (290 idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia, 52 symptomatic trigeminal neuralgia, 16 atypical facial pain, 9 post-herpetic neuralgia)., Method: Clinical findings and surgery success rate were considered for evaluation. A scale of success rate was determined to classify patients, which considered pain relief and functional/sensorial deficits., Results: Radiofrequency rhizotomy was performed in 273 patients with idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia and in all other patients, except for trigeminal neuropathy; neurovascular decompression was performed in 18 idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia patients; 100% idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia, 96.2% symptomatic trigeminal neuralgia, 37.5% atypical facial pain and 88.9% post-herpetic neuralgia had pain relief., Conclusion: Both techniques for idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia are usefull. Radiofrequency rhizotomy was also efficient to treat symptomatic facial pain, and post-herpetic facial pain, but is not a good technique for atypical facial pain.

The authors describe two patients with the association of polyposis-coli and central nervous system tumor (Turcot's syndrome). Clinical, genetic and therapeutic aspects are discussed.

A case of calcified choroid plexus papilloma in a 7 years old child is reported. The radiologic findings are discussed.

A case of precocious puberty and diabetes insipidus in a 7 years old boy due to a malignant teratoma in the IVth ventricle is reported. The tumor had grown into the IIIrd and lateral ventricles as found on the necropsy. The original site of the tumor and the possible physiopathological mechanisms for the precocious puberty are discussed.

The case of 15 years old boy with an enterogenous cyst causing compression of the spinal cord at T-2 is reported. The diagnosis was made by thoracic laminectomy and confirmed by histological examination. The motor disorders improved progressively after surgery.

The radiological findings of syringomyelography are described in a five years old patient who underwent a percutaneous injection of opaque contrast medium (Lipiodol) into the intraspinal syringomyelic cavity. The clinical picture, the usual diagnostic methods and the place of syringomyelography for the diagnosis of syringomielia are discussed.

Techniques of microsurgical revascularization are reviewed. A series of 5 cases, submitted to 6 anastomosis of the superficial temporal artery is presented.

Solitary granulomatous lesions due to cysticercosis in the brain were found by computed tomography in six patients. The CT images were in all cases very similar to those from brain neoplasms. The cerebrospinal fluid complement fixation test for cysticercosis was negative in all of the cases. The definite etiological diagnosis could only be made by craniotomy in this series.

The differential diagnosis between brain atrophy versus subdural effusion in children has shown some difficulties in a few cases, mainly when the frontal subarachnoid space is very large on computed tomography. We think that a simple procedure, that is, CT scans in the lateral and prone position following the standard examination, may be worth to clarify those cases of doubtful diagnosis.

Computed Tomography (CT) has been very useful in the follow-up of patients with brain tumors. Soon after the craniotomy, CT would show any residual tumor if an incomplete excision was done. CT has been essential when one needs to evaluate any deterioration in the patient's neurological status post operatively. In such instances, CT may detect brain edema, hematoma, hydrocephalus and the presence of air. CT findings are more accurate than those obtained from conventional neuroradiology or from intracranial pressure monitoring, being also more innocuous than those methods. Later in the post operative follow-up, CT allows, besides precocious diagnosis of tumor recurrences, a good evaluation of the results obtained by chemiotherapy or radiotherapy. When hydrocephalus is accompanying the primary pathology, ventricular size can be rapidly evaluated by CT. Difficulties may arise when one wishes to differentiate CT images of radionecrosis from tumor recurrences at least in the initial stages.