NEUROSURGERY://ON-CALL® Update excerpted from NEUROSURGERY NEWS

The CNS Online Image Database was a project initially conceived by the CNS Education Committee as a repository for image information. Dr. Chris Wolfla, Chairman of the Education Committee, along with volunteers, has painstakingly collected key digital images that cover the spectrum of neurological disease. The image set contains representative images of everything from normal anatomy, such as a basic MRI scan of the head, to pathological anatomy, such as degenerative spine disorders or skull base tumors. Images are codified in several ways to improve precise and rapid retrieval. Each image is organized using a hiearchical structure beginning with a main category of cranial, spinal, or peripheral nerve. Each image is part of a smaller collected of case-related images. When reviewing a given image, a simple click of the button will rapidly retrieve any associated images in order to display the full story for a given problem.

The user can specify a search and sort criteria. The results of a search are presented in a hit list with small thumbnail images beside each title. These thumbnails act as a button that when clicked will display a full-scale representation of the image. Several image types are included in the database such as MRIs, CT scans, x-rays, photographs, and graphical images. In many cases, multiple perspectives are also supplied.

The intention of the Education Committee was to develop a resource for neurosurgeons to use to educate their patients, resident surgeons, or allied health professionals. Great care has been taken to ensure that each of the included images is free of all identifying information. To utilize an image from the database for your own presentation, copy the image to your own desktop computer. On the Macintosh platform, simply click and hold the mouse button down on the image until a menu appears and use the save function. On the Windows platform, right click while holding the mouse over the image and use the save function. You are free to include these images in personal presentations, but the images are copyrighted by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and should not be included in publications without prior written consent. For further information, please contact Dr. Chris Wolfla at CNS.

At present, the image database has approximately 1,000 images. Additional images are added everyday. As the image collection grows, this only resource will no doubt become a valuable teaching tool. Please stop by and give it a test drive today.

Source: Neurosurgery News, Volume 2-Number 5, 2001 CNS Annual Meeting Issue. Reprinted by permission.