Spine
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Case Reports
Successful management of a large pulmonary cement embolus after percutaneous vertebroplasty: a case report.
Percutaneous vertebroplasty is increasingly used for the treatment of vertebral compression fractures. Local leakage of polymethylmethacrylate cement into the perivertebral space is a common complication, but important systemic effects have rarely been reported. ⋯ The patient made an uneventful recovery. The authors review how appropriate arthroplasty techniques might minimize the risk of this dreadful complication.
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Retrospective radiographic review. ⋯ Selective thoracic or thoracolumbar/lumbar fusions of the major curve can be successfully performed even when the minor curve completely deviates from the midline, based on the Lenke classification system, the analysis of structural criteria between the planned fused and unfused regions of the spine, and the clinical examination of the patient. Selective fusions, when successfully performed, will optimize mobile segments of the spine in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.
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Carl Nicoladoni (1847-1902) studied medicine in Vienna and became Privatdozent in surgery in 1876. He accepted a chair as a Professor of Surgery at the university clinics of Innsbruck (1881) and Graz (1895). Nicoladoni has made significant contributions in the progress of surgery and performed a variety of operations in several surgical disciplines. ⋯ A larger edition printed in 1904 was part of the Bibliotheca Medica, a monumental series of various clinical books published around the beginning of the past century. The second version, a shortened one, with the same title was included in an anthology called Deutsche Chirurgie (German Surgery) and published in 1909. The purpose of this historical article is to discuss Nicoladoni's achievements in the field of scoliosis based on a detailed analysis of his books.
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Biomechanical study. ⋯ Based on the results of this biomechanical comparison, the calf spines instrumented with the wedge-rod system for fusionless correction were significantly stiffer as compared to the intact calf spine. The wedges alone were not as stiff as the intact spine. This suggests that the theory of performing transverse osteotomies of vertebral bodies with fixation with wedge-rod construct for 8 to 12 weeks, followed by removal of the rod, could provide adequate fixation and correction of a scoliotic deformity without requiring fusion of motion segments.
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Comparative Study
Biomechanical comparison of cervical spine reconstructive techniques after a multilevel corpectomy of the cervical spine.
An in vitro biomechanical study of several reconstructive techniques after a two-level cervical corpectomy. ⋯ The biomechanical results obtained suggest that posterior segmental instrumentation confers significant stability to a multilevel cervical corpectomy regardless of the presence or absence of anterior instrumentation. In cases in which the stability of a multilevel reconstruction procedure is tenuous, the surgeon should strongly consider the placement of segmental posterior instrumentation to significantly improve the overall stability of the fusion construct.