Journal of neurosurgery. Spine
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OBJECT Anesthesia techniques can contribute to the reduction of anesthesia-controlled time and may therefore improve operating room efficiency. However, little is known about the difference in anesthesia-controlled time between propofol-based total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) and desflurane (DES) anesthesia techniques for prolonged lumbar spine surgery under general anesthesia. METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted using hospital databases to compare the anesthesia-controlled time of lengthy (surgical time > 180 minutes) lumbar spine surgery in patients receiving either TIVA via target-controlled infusion (TCI) with propofol/fentanyl or DES/fentanyl-based anesthesia, between January 2009 and December 2011. ⋯ However, there was no statistically significant difference in PACU length of stay between the groups. Heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure were more stable during extubation in the TIVA group than in the DES group. CONCLUSIONS Utilization of TIVA reduced the mean time to extubation and total surgical suite time by 5.4 minutes and 11.8 minutes, respectively, and produced more stable hemodynamics during extubation compared with the use of DES anesthesia in lengthy lumbar spine surgery.
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OBJECT Anterior cervical corpectomy with fusion has become the most widely used procedure for the treatment of multilevel cervical stenosis. Although an autologous bone graft is the gold standard for vertebral replacement after corpectomy, industrial implants have become popular because they result in no donor-site morbidity. In this study, the authors compared clinical and radiological results of autologous iliac grafts versus those of bone-filled polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) cage implants. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS Preoperative pain and radicularand myelopathic symptoms improve after decompression irrespective of the material used for vertebral replacement. The use of PEKK cages for vertebral replacement seems to result in a higher risk of implant-related complications. A prospective randomized study is necessary to supply evidence for the use of autografts and artificial implants after anterior cervical corpectomy with fusion.
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OBJECT To determine the incidence of and assess the risk factors associated with neurological injury in motor vehicle occupants who sustain fractures of the thoracolumbar spine. METHODS In this study, the authors queried medical, vehicle, and crash data elements from the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN), a prospectively gathered multicenter database compiled from Level I trauma centers. Subjects had fractures involving the T1-L5 vertebral segments, an Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) score of ≥ 3, or injury to 2 body regions with an AIS score of ≥ 2 in each region. ⋯ Vehicle occupants who were either obese or underweight, very young or elderly, and those in crashes with a ΔV greater than 50 km/hour were at higher risk of thoracolumbar neurological injury. Neurological injury at thoracic and lumbar levels was associated with multiple factors, including the incidence of fatality, occupant factors such as age and body habitus, energy at impact, and direction of impact. Current vehicle safety technologies are geared toward a normative body morphology and need to be reevaluated for various body morphologies and torso compliances to lower the risk of neurological injury resulting from thoracolumbar fractures.
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OBJECT The aim of this study was to determine if the ability of a surgeon to correctly classify A3 (burst fractures with a single endplate involved) and A4 (burst fractures with both endplates involved) fractures is affected by either the region or the experience of the surgeon. METHODS A survey was sent to 100 AOSpine members from all 6 AO regions of the world (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East) who had no prior knowledge of the new AOSpine Thoracolumbar Spine Injury Classification System. Respondents were asked to classify 25 cases, including 6 thoracolumbar burst fractures (A3 or A4). ⋯ RESULTS All 100 surveyed surgeons completed the survey, and no significant regional (p > 0.50) or experiential (p > 0.21) variability in the ability to correctly classify burst fractures was identified; however, surgeons from all regions and with all levels of experience were more likely to correctly classify A3 fractures than A4 fractures (p < 0.01). Further analysis demonstrated that no region predisposed surgeons to increasing their assessment of severity of burst fractures. CONCLUSIONS A3 and A4 fractures are the most difficult 2 fractures to correctly classify, but this is not affected by the region or experience of the surgeon; therefore, regional variations in the treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures (A3 and A4) is not due to differing radiographic interpretation of the fractures.
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OBJECT Failed-back surgery syndrome has been historically used to describe extremity neuropathic pain in lumbar disease despite structurally corrective spinal surgery. It is unclear whether specific preoperative pain characteristics can help determine which patients may be susceptible to such postoperative disabling symptoms. METHODS This prospective study analyzed surgical microdiscectomy patients treated for lumbar, degenerative, painful radiculopathy. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS This population exhibited a low overall frequency of PPNP. Higher neuropathic pain screening scores correlated strongly with likelihood of significant postoperative leg pain. Further work is required to develop more accurate prognostication tools for radiculopathy patients undergoing structural spinal surgery.