Spine
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Comparative Study
Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging to differentiate degenerative from infectious endplate abnormalities in the lumbar spine.
A retrospective observational study of healthy volunteers and patients with degenerative and infectious endplate abnormalities in the lumbar spine. ⋯ DWI is useful for differentiation of degenerative and infectious endplate abnormalities. Moreover, MRI is widely used clinically because of the lack of ionizing radiation, low cost, and fast imaging time as compared with positron emission tomography. Therefore, DWI has the potential to be used as a screening tool.
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Comparative Study
Inflammatory cytokine and chemokine expression is differentially modulated acutely in the dorsal root ganglion in response to different nerve root compressions.
Inflammatory proteins were quantified in bilateral dorsal root ganglions (DRGs) at 1 hour and 1 day using a multiplexed assay after 2 different unilateral nerve root compression injuries. ⋯ Nerve root compression alone may not be sufficient to induce early increases in proinflammatory cytokines in the DRG after radiculopathy and this early protein response may not be directly responsible for nociception in this type of injury.
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Comparative Study
Surgeons agree to disagree on surgical options for degenerative conditions of the cervical and lumbar spine.
This is a survey study designed to evaluate agreement among spine surgeons regarding treatment options for six clinical scenarios involving degenerative conditions of the cervical and lumbar spine. ⋯ Spine surgeons in this survey generally agreed on when to operate but failed to agree on what type of procedures to perform.
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Case Reports
Inadvertent injection of a cervical radicular artery using an atraumatic pencil-point needle.
Case report and review of the literature. ⋯ This case demonstrates that the use of pencil-point (Whitacre) needles does not eliminate the risk of inadvertent arterial injection during cervical transforaminal epidurals. Further investigation is required to determine whether the incidence of inadvertent vascular injection is reduced with pencil-point needles compared with sharp-beveled needles.
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Comparative Study
Cervical multilevel intraspinal stem cell therapy: assessment of surgical risks in Gottingen minipigs.
Assessment of long-term surgical risks from multiple intraspinal cell injections. ⋯ Clinically acceptable neural progenitor survival, distribution, and density were achieved using the number of injections and surgical techniques specifically developed for this purpose.