Journal of neurosurgery. Spine
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Multicenter Study
Clinical and radiographic parameters associated with best versus worst clinical outcomes in minimally invasive spinal deformity surgery.
OBJECTIVE Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques are increasingly used to treat adult spinal deformity. However, standard minimally invasive spinal deformity techniques have a more limited ability to restore sagittal balance and match the pelvic incidence-lumbar lordosis (PI-LL) than traditional open surgery. This study sought to compare "best" versus "worst" outcomes of MIS to identify variables that may predispose patients to postoperative success. ⋯ The best group also had better postoperative visual analog scale back and leg pain scores (p = 0.001 and p = 0.046, respectively). CONCLUSIONS The authors recommend that spinal deformity surgeons using MIS techniques focus on correcting a patient's PI-LL mismatch to within 10° and restoring SVA to < 5 cm. Restoration of these parameters seems to impact which patients will attain the greatest degree of improvement in ODI outcomes, while the spines of patients who do the worst are not appropriately corrected and may be fused into a fixed sagittal plane deformity.
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Comparative Study
Inpatient morbidity and mortality after adult spinal deformity surgery in teaching versus nonteaching hospitals.
OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to compare inpatient morbidity and mortality after adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery in teaching versus nonteaching hospitals in the US. METHODS The Nationwide Inpatient Sample was used to identify surgical patients with ASD between 2002 and 2011. Only patients > 21 years old and elective cases were included. ⋯ After controlling for patient characteristics, case complexity, and revision status, patients treated at teaching hospitals were significantly less likely to develop a complication when compared with patients treated at a nonteaching hospital (OR 0.89; 95% CI 0.82-0.98). The mortality rate was 0.4% in teaching hospitals and < 0.4% in nonteaching hospitals (p = 0.210). CONCLUSIONS Patients who undergo surgery for ASD at a teaching hospital may have significantly lower odds of complication development compared with patients treated at a nonteaching hospital.
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Review Case Reports
Uremic tumoral calcinosis in the cervical spine: case report.
Tumoral calcinosis is an uncommon condition characterized by the calcification of periarticular soft tissue. In uremic patients the disease is secondary to metabolic disturbances in predisposed patients. The authors report the case of a 73-year-old woman who presented with a new painful cervical mass while undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis for long-standing end-stage renal disease (ESRD). ⋯ The authors conducted a search of the PubMed and EMBASE databases and identified 7 previously reported cases of UTC of the cervical spine. They present a summary of these cases and discuss the etiology, diagnosis, and management of the condition. Although the metabolic disturbances seen in patients undergoing dialysis can lead to tumoral calcinosis, most reported cases involve large joints such as the shoulder or the hip; however, the spine can also be affected and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with uremia as it can mimic aggressive bone-forming neoplasms.
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OBJECTIVE The aim in this paper was to evaluate the efficacy of long-acting liposomal bupivacaine in comparison with bupivacaine hydrochloride for lowering postoperative analgesic usage in the management of posterior cervical and lumbar decompression and fusion. METHODS A retrospective cohort-matched chart review of 531 consecutive cases over 17 months (October 2013 to February 2015) for posterior cervical and lumbar spinal surgery procedures performed by a single surgeon (J. J.) was performed. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS Liposomal bupivacaine did not appear to significantly decrease perioperative narcotic use or length of hospitalization, although there was a trend toward decreased narcotic use in comparison with bupivacaine hydrochloride. While the results of this study do not support the routine use of liposomal bupivacaine, there may be a benefit in the subgroup of patients who are chronic opiate users. Future prospective randomized controlled trials, ideally with dose-response parameters, must be performed to fully explore the efficacy of liposomal bupivacaine, as the prior literature suggests that clinically relevant effects require a minimum tissue concentration.
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Multicenter Study
Risk of adjacent-segment disease requiring surgery after short lumbar fusion: results of the French Spine Surgery Society Series.
OBJECTIVE Adjacent-segment disease (ASD) is an increasingly problematic complication following lumbar fusion surgery. The purpose of the current study was to determine the risk of ASD requiring surgical treatment after short lumbar or lumbosacral fusion. Primary spinal disease and surgical factors associated with an increased risk of revision were also investigated. ⋯ The highest risk was observed for degenerative spondylolisthesis. CONCLUSIONS ASD requiring revision surgery was predicted in 5.6% of patients 7 years after index short lumbar spinal fusion in the French Spine Surgery Society retrospective series. An increased risk of ASD requiring revision surgery associated with initial spinal disease showed the significance of the influence of natural degenerative history on adjacent-segment pathology.