Spine
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Case Reports Comparative Study
Efficacy of intraoperative monitoring for pediatric patients with spinal cord pathology undergoing spinal deformity surgery.
A retrospective study of 38 pediatric patients with spinal cord pathology who underwent corrective spinal deformity surgery from January 1989 through June 1998. ⋯ Intraoperative monitoring should be used in patients with spinal cord pathology who undergo surgery for spinal deformity. Monitoring should not miss a neurologic deficit but demonstrates greater variability, resulting in more frequent use of an intraoperative wake-up test.
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This is a retrospective, consecutive case series, with the index patient included. ⋯ This method of selecting instrumentation levels while using torsional correction techniques is safe and reliable. The results were improved with the evolution of these techniques and appear to provide improved correction and correction maintenance compared with that of historical controls.
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This is an analysis of consecutive cases of flatback deformity (fixed sagittal imbalance), treated by one of two surgeons at a university hospital. ⋯ Satisfaction with the results of treatment may be reduced in patients with four or more major co-existent medical problems, insufficient sagittal correction, and resultant pseudarthrosis.
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The effect of spinal canal narrowing and the timing of decompression after a spinal cord injury were evaluated using a rat model. ⋯ The results in this study present strong evidence that the prognosis for neurologic recovery is adversely affected by both a higher percentage of canal narrowing and a longer duration of canal narrowing after a spinal cord injury. The tolerance for spinal canal narrowing with a contused cord appears diminished, indicating that an injured spinal cord may benefit from early decompression. Additionally, it appears that the longer the spinal cord compression exists after an incomplete spinal cord injury, the worse the prognosis for neurologic recovery.
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A cross-sectional retrospective study to observe the correlation between postoperation findings shown on magnetic resonance imaging and clinical observations of 56 patients 10 years after laminectomy for lumbar spinal stenosis. ⋯ Patients' perception of improvement had a much stronger correlation with long-term surgical outcome than structural findings seen on postoperation magnetic resonance imaging. Moreover, degenerative findings had a greater effect on patients' walking capacity than stenotic findings.