European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society
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Explore the relationships between preoperative findings and clinical outcome following lumbar disc surgery, and investigate the prognostic value of physical examination findings after accounting for information acquired from the clinical history. ⋯ Information gleaned from the clinical history and physical examination helps to identify patients more likely to succeed with lumbar disc surgery. While this study helps to inform clinical practice, additional research confirming these results is required prior to confident clinical implementation.
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The state of adjacent level discs and its impact on surgical outcomes following single-level lumbar discectomy have not been previously investigated. The purpose of the present study was to determine if a significant relationship exists between the degree of preoperative adjacent level disc degeneration and post-operative clinical outcomes following lumbar discectomy. ⋯ The degree of preoperative adjacent level degeneration does not significantly affect functional or pain relief outcomes following lumbar discectomy up to 1 year after surgery.
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To verify the clinical applicability of a modified classification system in distractive-extension cervical spine injury that reflects the degrees of soft tissue damage and spinal cord injury while complementing previous Allen classification and subaxial cervical spine injury classification (SLIC) system. ⋯ The proposed classification and scoring system to complement the Allen classification and SLIC system with respect to the degrees of soft tissue damage and spinal cord injury is considered effective for diagnosing and determining therapeutic directions and prognosis in cases of cervical spine extension injury.
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Modic changes (MC) are associated with low back pain (LBP). Inflammation is considered as a key factor that triggers symptoms in especially type I MC, but so far of the potential inflammatory candidates only TNFα has been linked to MC. The objective of the study was to analyze a set of inflammatory mediators in human surgical disk samples and quantify their association with MC in the adjacent vertebral bodies. ⋯ Since these cytokines are related to differentiation and proliferation of osteoclasts, our data suggest that the stimulation of vertebral osteoclasts by factors secreted by disk tissue is involved in the pathophysiology of MC.
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This study examined the cervical spine range of motion (ROM) resulting from whiplash-type hyperextension and hyperflexion type ligamentous injuries, and sought to improve the accuracy of specific diagnosis of these injuries. ⋯ It is recommended that other bending axes beyond flexion and extension are incorporated into clinical diagnosis of cervical ligamentous injury.