Despite their relatively low incidence globally, central nervous system (CNS) tumors remain amongst the most lethal cancers, with only a few other malignancies surpassing them in 5-year mortality rates. Treatment decisions for brain tumors heavily rely on histopathological analysis, particularly intraoperatively, to guide surgical interventions and optimize patient outcomes. Frozen sectioning has emerged as a vital intraoperative technique, allowing for highly accurate, rapid analysis of tissue samples, although it poses challenges regarding interpretive errors and tissue distortion. Raman histology, based on Raman spectroscopy, has shown great promise in providing label-free, molecular information for accurate intraoperative diagnosis, aiding in tumor resection and the identification of neurodegenerative disease. Techniques including Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS), Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS), Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), and Tip-Enhanced Raman Scattering (TERS) have profoundly enhanced the speed and resolution of Raman imaging. Similarly, Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy (CLE) allows for real-time imaging and the rapid intraoperative histologic evaluation of specimens. While CLE is primarily utilized in gastrointestinal procedures, its application in neurosurgery is promising, particularly in the context of gliomas and meningiomas. This review focuses on discussing the immense progress in intraoperative histology within neurosurgery and provides insight into the impact of these advancements on enhancing patient outcomes.

This review aims to explore the evolution, techniques, and outcomes of minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) within the field of neurosurgery. We sought to address the increasing burden of spine degeneration in a rapidly aging population and the need for optimizing surgical management. This review explores various techniques in MISS, drawing upon evidence from retrospective studies, case series, systematic reviews, and technological advancements in neurosurgical spine treatment. Various approaches, including endonasal cervical, transoral cervical, transcervical, mini-open/percutaneous, tubular, and endoscopic techniques, provide alternatives for current approaches to a range of spinal pathologies. The main findings of this review highlight potential advantages of MISS over traditional open surgery, including reduced complications, shorter hospital stays, and improved patient outcomes. Our research underscores the importance of adopting MISS techniques to optimize patient care in neurosurgical spine treatment.

BACKGROUND: Spontaneous subaponeurotic fluid collections (SSFCs) are benign, typically self-limiting fluid collections beneath the scalp’s aponeurosis. Their abrupt onset and unusual appearance can cause significant alarm and suspicion of considerable pathology or child abuse. With an unclear etiology and concerning clinical presentation, it is important to recognize SSFCs as a unique condition, distinct from those that require immediate neurosurgical intervention. OBSERVATIONS: A 10-week-old male presented with soft, nontender, fluctuant scalp swelling with a fluid thrill in the left lateral occipitoparietal region, not confined by suture lines and without bruising or erythema. He had been delivered vaginally after 6 hours of labor and had been monitored with a fetal scalp electrode. No scalp swelling or fluid collections, injury, trauma, or hair manipulation had been noted from the immediate neonatal period until the current presentation. This fluid collection was subsequently identified as an SSFC, which resolved within 24 hours precluding the scheduled ultrasound. LESSONS: Despite their benign and transient nature, SSFCs might raise suspicions of child abuse or more severe conditions requiring immediate neurosurgical intervention. Although their exact pathophysiology and etiology remain unclear, SSFCs typically resolve spontaneously, with no additional diagnostic workup or management necessary following adequate differentiation from other conditions. https://thejns.org/doi/10.3171/CASE24589

Neurophobia is usually framed as a learner's fear of difficult anatomy or neurological localization. That framing is incomplete. Discontinuous exposure, limited clinical context, inaccessible mentorship, and unequal access to neuroscience opportunities also shape whether trainees develop competence and consider careers in neurology, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, or neuroscience. Existing outreach, mentorship, flipped-classroom, case-based, and virtual-reality programs often improve knowledge, confidence, or satisfaction, but most are small, single-institution studies and rarely measure durable clinical performance or career persistence. We argue that clinical neuroscience education should be redesigned as a longitudinal pipeline rather than a sequence of isolated events. Effective programs should connect early exposure to repeated patient-centered learning, provide mentors with defined responsibilities and institutional support, use educational technology only when it serves a specific learning objective, and remove financial and social barriers that restrict participation. Evaluation should extend beyond post-session enthusiasm to retention, diagnostic reasoning, supervised clinical performance, specialty entry, and persistence. Neurophobia will not be solved by making neuroscience merely more entertaining; it will be reduced when institutions make the subject clinically coherent, mentorship dependable, and participation genuinely accessible.