Clinics in sports medicine
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Continual improvements in MR imaging, technology and MR imaging-compatible monitoring and fixation devices have allowed the incorporation of this relatively new imaging modality into standard algorithms for cervical spine trauma assessment. The ability of MR imaging to define the type of spinal cord injury, the cause and severity of spinal cord compression, and the stability of the spinal column is unmatched. The heavy reliance of the spinal surgeon on MR imaging for decisions regarding the type of therapy, the timing, the approach of surgical intervention, and for predicting patient outcome attests to the usefulness of this modality.
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The early studies on IDET are very promising. IDET offers patients with chronic discogenic low back pain an option other than chronic pain [figure: see text] management or spinal fusion. Studies currently under way will help answer questions relative to mechanism of action, placebo effect, and biomechanical changes after treatment. ⋯ This may be especially true for the young patient with preserved disc height, and patients with inoperable multilevel disease. The technology was designed to be used for a specific diagnostic subset of disc disorders by specialists skilled in performing intradiscal techniques who possess the ability to accurately diagnose and effectively manage patients with complex spinal disorders. Abuse of this ground-breaking technology can be avoided if patient selection criteria are carefully observed and only skilled, technically proficient physicians perform the procedure.