Report on Advances for General Medicine in 2019: Neurosurgery, Urology, Gynecology and Obstetrics, and Internal Medicine.

Neurosurgery The use of graft materials in dural defects (cranial or spinal) are still a problem for neurosurgeons because they may lead to some serious complications such as meningoneural adhesions, scar tissue, pachymeningitis or soft tissue infections, the leakage of cerebrospinal fluid, neural herniations, and tethered cord syndrome [1]. Although most graft materials have been implicated in the cranial region, there are a few studies regarding spinal duraplasty [2]. One paper published in the Eurasian Journal of Medicine drew attention to an aspect that has not been studied in depth. That experimental and controlled study conducted by Calikoglu et al. investigated the effectiveness of collagen matrix in spinal duraplasty in terms of cellular inflammatory response, fibroblastic proliferation, foreign body reaction, and capsule formation. They showed that the collagen sponge might be suitable for spinal duraplasty and might be a useful agent in patients whose dura cannot be closed primarily because of retraction, shrinkage, or excision [2]. Therefore, further clinical studies are necessary to investigate the effects of collagen matrix in human beings.