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Neuroscience Hypotheses and Translation into Neurosurgery Practice Dennis A. Turner and Simon J. Archibald
CONTENTS 1.1
Introduction 1.1.1 Concept of Translational Neuroscience 1.1.2 Translational Neurosurgery versus Translational Neuroscience 1.1.3 Examples of Translational Products 1.2 Categories of Neurosurgery Advances 1.3 Critical Questions in Translational Neurosurgery 1.3.1 When Is Preclinical Data Sufficient to Proceed to Human Experimentation? 1.3.2 Who Is Involved with Translational Neurosurgery? 1.3.3 Mechanisms of Translational Neurosurgery: University and Corporate Involvement 1.3.4 Device Development Process 1.3.5 Guidelines for Efficacious Treatment Schemes 1.4 Outline of Topics of Neurosurgery Advances 1.5 Levels of Nervous System Functioning: Cellular to Systems 1.6 Conclusions References
1.1 INTRODUCTION 1.1.1 CONCEPT
OF
TRANSLATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
The concept of “translational” research is based on the effective rendering of research ideas into actual clinical practice — in other words “translating” the research finding into clinical usefulness.1,2 This concept has many different definitions, depending upon the location along a continuous axis that extends from preclinical experimental work to what would be considered purely clinical research. In a recent review, translational research is considered to occur when an endpoint is measured in a patient rather than via a preclinical experiment.2 A team is usually involved, including
© 2005 by CRC Press LLC
the preclinical scientists developing the idea for the treatment strategy, the clinicians involved with providing care to patients and using the treatment, and the formal clinical trial necessities such as trial statisticians and research nurses. However, a broader definition is provided by The American Physiological Society, which defines translatio