Spine
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Prospectively collected data from regular clinical follow-up evaluations were tabulated, analyzed, reviewed using a patient self-reported questionnaire. ⋯ The clinical classification system helps in differentiating different presentations of thoracic disc disease and their final outcome. Video-assisted thorascopic surgery appears to be a safe and efficacious method for the treatment of refractory symptomatic thoracic disc herniations. The current data suggest that the procedure has an acceptable long-term outcome, with an 84% overall subjective patient satisfaction rate, and with objective long-term clinical success achieved in 70% of patients.
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A radiographic and morphologic study was conducted to investigate low-grade spondylolisthesis in cases with preexisting isthmic spondylolysis of L5. ⋯ The authors considered that the slips with and those without deformities of the sacral table had developed in adolescence and adulthood, respectively. Using new radiographic parameters that indicate widening and tilting of the sacral table, low-grade isthmic spondylolis thesis can be categorized into "adolescent and adult vertebral slips."
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Discriminative and predictive validity assessment of the quebec task force classification.
A prospective cohort study of workers with low back pain who had been absent from work for more than 4 weeks was conducted. ⋯ The Quebec Task Force Classification demonstrated good predictive ability by discriminating between subjects with and those without distal radiating pain.
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A test-retest design was used. ⋯ Interexaminer reliability of the McKenzie lumbar spine assessment in performing clinical tests and classifying patients with low back pain into syndromes were good and statistically significant when the examiners had been trained in the McKenzie method.
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The assignment of idiopathic scoliosis curves to the curve types,1-6 to the lumbar spine modifier (A, B, or C), and to the sagittal thoracic modifier (-, N, +), as recently described by Lenke et al, was evaluated by five observers on two occasions. ⋯ Lenke's new classification system is more reliable than the older King classification, but proper classification of high thoracic and lumbar curves seems to be difficult.