Spine
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Systematic literature review. ⋯ Although statistically significant, the differences in clinical improvement were not beyond generally accepted boundaries for clinical relevance. Prevention of adjacent level disease and/or facet joint degeneration was not properly assessed. Therefore, because we think that harm and complications may occur after some years, the spine surgery community should be prudent to adopt this technology on a large scale, despite the fact that total disc replacement seems to be effective in treating low back pain in selected patients, and in the short term is at least equivalent to fusion surgery.
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Longitudinal cohort. ⋯ In this cohort of patients, using the single-index SF-6D produces a loss of discriminative properties compared with the SF-36 and ODI. However, this loss is small, because all the effect sizes remain large (≥0.80). Therefore, these losses should not preclude the use of the SF-6D compared with the SF-36 and may be preferred because it is more easily interpretable and less difficult to incorporate in economic evaluations.
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Retrospective study. ⋯ APSF with FSAG for dystrophic deformity in NF-1 successfully reconstructed a reliable spinal column with a rich bone stock. The FSAG and surrounding vertebral bodies were free from postoperative erosion due to dystrophic changes and maintained their stability for a long time.
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Retrospective review. ⋯ The lumbar retroperitoneal transpsoas MIS LIF is a safe alternative to traditional open operations for many spinal conditions. As with most minimally invasive techniques, there is a learning curve to be overcome to minimize the risk of iatrogenic nerve injuries. Our refined technique of the MIS LIF during a 3-year period has led to a significant reduction of the incidence of postoperative numbness of nearly 60% (from 26.1%-10.7%).