Journal of neurosurgery. Spine
-
Several surgical procedures have been developed to treat thoracic OPLL (ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament). However, favorable surgical results are not always achieved, and consistent protocols and procedures for surgical treatment of OPLL in this region have not been established. Beak-type OPLL in the thoracic spine is known to be the most complicated form of OPLL to treat surgically. In this study, the authors examine the clinical outcomes after anterior decompression via a posterolateral approach for beak-type OPLL in the thoracic spine and address the gradual spinal cord decompression caused by migration of the floated plaques after surgery. ⋯ Treatment of beak-type OPLL in the thoracic spine via the posterolateral approach-based floating plaque technique was safe and effective in this small case series. Gradual migration of the floated plaques provided additional spinal cord decompression during the postoperative course.
-
OBJECT The authors have established a multicenter registry to assess the efficacy and costs of common lumbar spinal procedures using prospectively collected outcomes. Collection of these data requires an extensive commitment of resources from each site. The aim of this study was to determine whether outcomes data from shorter-interval follow-up could be used to accurately estimate long-term outcome following lumbar discectomy. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS This national spine registry demonstrated successful collection of high-quality outcomes data for spinal procedures in actual practice. Three-month outcome data may be used to accurately estimate outcome at future time points and may lower costs associated with registry data collection. This registry effort provides a practical foundation for the acquisition of outcome data following lumbar discectomy.
-
Most thoracolumbar fractures have a good healing outcome with adequate treatment. However, posttraumatic thoracolumbar kyphosis can occur in a proportion of thoracolumbar fractures after inappropriate treatment, osteoporosis, or osteonecrosis of the vertebral body. There are several surgical options to correct posttraumatic thoracolumbar kyphosis, including anterior, posterior, and combined approaches, which are associated with varying degrees of success. The aim of this study was to assess the use of a modified closing wedge osteotomy for the treatment of posttraumatic thoracolumbar kyphosis and to evaluate the radiographic findings and clinical outcomes of patients treated using this technique. ⋯ The modified posterior closing wedge osteotomy technique achieves satisfactory kyphosis correction with direct visualization of the circumferentially decompressed spinal cord, as well as good fusion with less blood loss and fewer complications. It is an alternative method for treating patients with posttraumatic thoracolumbar kyphosis.
-
The authors sought to determine patient-related outcomes after minimally invasive surgical (MIS) lumbar intraspinal synovial cyst excision via a tubular working channel and a contralateral facet-sparing approach. ⋯ The MIS excision of lumbar intraspinal synovial cysts via a contralateral approach offers excellent exposure to the cyst and spares the facet joint at the involved level, thus minimizing risk of instability, blood loss, operative time, and hospital stay. Prospective randomized trials with longer follow-up times and larger cohorts are needed to conclusively determine the superiority of the contralateral MIS approach over others, including open or ipsilateral minimally invasive surgery.
-
OBJECT Previous studies that have evaluated the prognostic value of abnormal changes in signals on T2-weighted MRI scans of an injured spinal cord have focused on the longitudinal extent of this signal abnormality in the sagittal plane. Although the transverse extent of injury and the degree of spared spinal cord white matter have been shown to be important for predicting outcomes in preclinical animal models of spinal cord injury (SCI), surprisingly little is known about the prognostic value of altered T2 relaxivity in humans in the axial plane. METHODS The authors undertook a retrospective chart review of 60 patients who met the inclusion criteria of this study and presented to the authors' Level I trauma center with an acute blunt traumatic cervical SCI. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS The authors describe a novel 5-point ordinal MRI score for classifying acute SCIs on the basis of axial T2-weighted imaging. The proposed BASIC score stratifies the SCIs according to the extent of transverse T2 signal abnormality during the acute phase of the injury. The new score improves on current MRI-based prognostic descriptions for SCI by reflecting functionally and anatomically significant patterns of intramedullary T2 signal abnormality in the axial plane.