The Omentum: Research and Clinical Applications

The Omentum explores and assesses the comparatively new approach of using omental attachment in the treatment of a variety of neurologic diseases. Topics discussed include historical images and ideas connected with the greater omentum; angiogenesis and the greater omentum; implications for central nervous system injury of vasoactive chemicals in the omentum; effects of omental-derived lipid fractions on osseous vascularization and bone formation; cerebral revascularization by omental graft for moyamoya disease; omental transposition for treating the sequelae of viral encephalitis; experimental and clinical use of omental transposition for spinal cord pathology; and lumbo-omental shunt for treatment of communicating hydrocephalus. The effect of omentum transposition to the brain on regional cerebral blood flow in stroke patients and on delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to malignant brain tumors is also considered.