The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society
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Controlled Clinical Trial
Cytokine evaluation in individuals with low back pain using discographic lavage.
The pathophysiology underlying degenerative disc disease and its implication in painful syndromes remain unclear. However, spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can demonstrate changes in disc water content and the annulus; provocative discography purportedly identifies degenerate discs causing serious low back pain; and biochemical assays have identified local inflammatory markers. No study to date has correlated pain on disc injection during discography evaluation with relevant MRI findings and biochemical markers. ⋯ Among the potential inflammatory markers tested in this Phase 1 study, IFN-gamma immunoreactivity was most commonly elevated in discogram "positive" discs but absent in asymptomatic controls. However, this marker was also frequently elevated in degenerative but "negative" discography discs. From these findings, Phase 2 and Phase 3 validity studies are reasonable to pursue. Phase 4 utility studies may be performed concurrently to assess this method's predictive value in outcome studies.
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Low back pain (LBP) is a widespread musculoskeletal condition that frequently occurs in the working-age population. Numerous occupational physical activities have been implicated in its etiology. ⋯ A summary of existing studies was not able to find any high-quality studies that satisfied more than two of the Bradford-Hill causation criteria for occupational standing or walking and LBP. Based on the evidence reviewed, it is unlikely that occupational standing or walking is independently causative of LBP in the populations of workers studied.
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High-speed computed tomography (CT) exams have replaced traditional radiographs for assessment of cervical spine injuries in many emergency departments. Recent evidence demonstrates that even subtle displacements can indicate significant upper cervical spine injuries. Many different anatomical measurements have been described in the upper cervical spine to date, most of them based on X-ray. The range of anatomical relationships that exist in an uninjured population must be known to reliably detect abnormal relations. The measurements with the lowest normal variation are likely to be most useful in detecting injuries. ⋯ These results revealed consistently narrow joint spaces and left-right symmetry in the upper cervical spine joints that do not vary according to demographics. There was distinctly greater consistency in the coronal plane, which enabled more precise diagnostic measurement and side-to-side comparison of measurements. This precision will enable more accurate identification of abnormal scans, which should prompt consideration for additional workup. Thus, better understanding of these relationships may enable earlier detection of subtle craniocervical dissociative injuries based on CT scan data. This is important, because the only evidence of a severe injury on CT can be subtle misalignment.
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This commentary is a product of the North American Spine Society (NASS). It was approved by the NASS Board of Directors and accepted for publication outside The Spine Journal's peer review process.
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Single-level corpectomy and two-level discectomy with anterior cervical plating have been reported to have comparable fusion and complication rates. However, there are few large series that have compared the two for sagittal alignment, cervical lordosis, graft subsidence, and adjacent-level ossification. ⋯ Our data suggest that the two procedures yield comparable results in terms of sagittal alignment, cervical lordosis, graft subsidence, and adjacent-level ossification. Graft subsidence and loss of cervical lordosis appeared to occur mainly during the first 6 weeks after surgery. Single-level corpectomy and fusion continued to subside at the posterior portion of caudal end plate even after 6 weeks. On the other hand, graft subsidence did not correlate with preoperative and final postoperative sagittal alignments.