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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Comparative Study
Preclinical evaluation of posterior spine stabilization devices: can the current standards represent basic everyday life activities?
To discuss whether the available standard methods for preclinical evaluation of posterior spine stabilization devices can represent basic everyday life activities and how to compare the results obtained with different procedures. ⋯ The study increases our awareness on the use of the current standards to achieve meaningful results easy to compare and interpret.
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The primary goal of this article is to achieve an automatic and objective method to compute the Pfirrmann's degeneration grade of intervertebral discs (IVD) from MRI. This grading system is used in the diagnosis and management of patients with low back pain (LBP). In addition, biomechanical models, which are employed to assess the treatment on patients with LBP, require this grading value to compute proper material properties. ⋯ Our results show that the automatic method and humans perform equally well in terms of the classification accuracy. However, human annotations have inherent inter- and intra-observer variabilities, which lead to inconsistent assessments. In contrast, the proposed automatic method is objective, being only dependent on the input MRI.
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The aim was to elucidate elite swimming's possible influence on lumbar disc degeneration (DD) and low back pain (LBP). ⋯ Elite swimmers and controls had similar prevalence of DD and LBP, although the pattern of DD differed between the groups. In case of DD, swimmers reported less LBP, although N.S.
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To determine if adolescent athletics increases the risk of structural abnormalities in the lumbar spine. ⋯ Adolescents with low back pain have a higher-than-expected prevalence of structural pathology regardless of athletic activity. Independent of pelvic incidence, adolescent athletes with low back pain had a higher prevalence of spondylolysis compared to adolescent non-athletes with back pain, but there was no difference in associated disc degenerative changes or herniation.
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For the stabilization of the thoracolumbar spine area, various stabilization techniques have been developed in recent decades. The aim of these techniques is to immobilize the treated segment to repositioning or correct the spine and guaranty long-term stability to achieve a reliable fusion. The aim of this study was to simulate in an in vitro experiment the postoperative long-term situation in elderly osteoporotic patients to compare two different stabilization principles; a pedicle screw system and a lamina hook system. ⋯ Both implant systems provide similar primary stability and similar long-term stability. In the pedicle screw group, there was a stronger correlation between bone mineral density and the reached number of load cycles.