Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia
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Spinal stenosis refers to narrowing of the spinal canal with encroachment of the neural structures by adjacent bone and soft tissue. Surgical treatment usually offers greater pain relief and functional recovery than non-surgical treatment. Nevertheless, neurological complications from decompressive laminectomy have been reported to range between 1% and 33%. ⋯ The 17 patients with the increased TcMEP amplitudes had the greatest improvement 3 and 12 months postoperatively, based on neurological examination and the visual analog scale pain ratings (p<0.001). Intraoperative monitoring may allow rapid identification of potential damage of the neural structures and avoidance through corrective action. TcMEP and continuous EMG monitoring is an effective method for monitoring neural function cord during surgical decompression of the lumbar spine and may additionally give prognostic information for the assessment of patient outcome.
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Non-accidental head injury ("shaken baby syndrome") is a major cause of death and disability in infants and young children, but it is uncertain whether shaking alone is sufficient to cause brain damage or an additional head impact is required. Accordingly, we used manual shaking in an ovine model in an attempt to answer this question since lambs have a relatively large gyrencephalic brain and weak neck muscles resembling a human infant. ⋯ Neuronal perikaryal APP was widely distributed in the brain and spinal cord, the first time such a diffuse neuronal stress response after shaking has been demonstrated, but axonal immunoreactivity was minimal and largely confined to the rostral cervical spinal cord at the site of maximal loading. No ischaemic-hypoxic damage was found in haematoxylin and eosin-stained sections.