an acute onset of excruciating neck pain (VAS>6) due to osteolytic destruction of the axis vertebra. There was no neurologic deficit and no compression of the spinal cord preoperatively requiring surgical decompression or stabilization in any of the cases. An open treatment strategy via an anterolateral microsurgical approach was performed. Under biplanar fluoroscopic control, the soft tumor tissue was resected out of the vertebral body through a drilled entry in the anterior wall. After the excavation procedure, the resection cavity was filled with minimal pressure with polymethylmethacrylate bone cement. All patients suffered from severe spontaneous neck pain (mean VAS 8.1, range 6-9), with head motion-dependent pain exacerbation despite high dose of opiates and fixation of the head with a brace.Mean duration of the operative procedure was 51 minutes.above the floor (Stoelting Co, Wood Dale, IL, USA). It consists of two opposite enclosed arms surrounded by 15-cm high opaque walls and two open arms of the same size (5 × 35 cm). The maze was set up in a dim lit room under a video camera (Panasonic WV-BP332 Surveillance camera, Panasonic Corp, Tokyo, Japan) connected to a computer under the control of the ANY-maze tracking system. Each mouse was placed in the center (5 × 5 cm) of the maze facing one of the open arms. Testing sessions of 10 min were carried out for each mouse and measured the distance (cm) and the number of entries and the time spent in the open arms. The maze was cleaned with 70% ethanol and wiped with paper towels between each trial. The percentage of