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
Electromyographic analysis of trunk-muscle activity during stable, unstable and unilateral bridging exercises in healthy individuals.
Spinal pain can result in unilateral atrophy of spinal muscles. Understanding side-to-side muscle activity during exercises can help clinicians address these deficits. This study determined if variations of bridging exercises specifically activated side-to-side trunk-muscle activity. ⋯ The results suggest that specific exercises (unilateral/unstable) can target specific sides of trunk muscles.
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Comparative Study
Improving successful rate of transcranial electrical motor-evoked potentials monitoring during spinal surgery in young children.
This prospective study was to investigate the successful rate of intraoperative motor evoked potentials (MEP) monitoring for children (<12 years old) with congenital scoliosis. ⋯ Low dose anesthesia by either TIVA with propofol or sevoflurane-based mixture anesthesia protocol can help the intraoperative spinal cord monitoring to successfully elicit MEP and perform reliable monitoring for patients below 12 years of age.
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There are only a few follow-up studies of untreated Scheuermann's disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between vertebral changes, back pain, and disability in patients with untreated Scheuermann's disease after a 37-year follow-up. ⋯ Scheuermann's patients had a higher risk for back pain and disabilities during activities of daily living than controls. However, the degree of thoracic kyphosis among Scheuermann's patients was not related to back pain, quality of life, or general health.
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Comparative Study
A pilot investigation into the effects of different office chairs on spinal angles.
To investigate the effects of four office chairs on the postural angles of the lumbopelvic and cervical regions. ⋯ In this study, the most appropriate posture for the lumbopelvic region was produced by the Saddle chair and for the cervical region by both the Saddle and Swopper chairs. No chair consistently produced an ideal posture across all regions, although the Saddle chair created the best posture of those chairs studied. Chair selection should be based on individual need.
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The sagittal profile of lumbar endplates is discrepant from current simplified disc replacement and fusion device design. Endplate concavity is symmetrical in the coronal plane but shows considerable variability in the sagittal plane, which may lead to implant-endplate mismatch. ⋯ The majority of lumbar endplates are concave, while the majority of sacral endplates are flat. An oblong and an ex-centric endplate shape can be distinguished, whereby the latter is more common at the lower lumbar levels. The apex of the concavity of ex-centric discs is located in the posterior half of the endplate and the concavity of the inferior endplate is deeper than that of the superior endplate. Based on the above, the current TDR and ALIF implant design does not sufficiently match the morphology of lumbar endplates in the sagittal plane.