The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Orthosis versus no orthosis for the treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures without neurologic injury: a multicenter prospective randomized equivalence trial.
Thoracolumbar burst fractures have good outcomes when treated with early ambulation and orthosis (TLSO). If equally good outcomes could be achieved with early ambulation and no brace, resource utilization would be decreased, especially in developing countries where prolonged bed rest is the default option because bracing is not available or affordable. ⋯ Treating these fractures using early ambulation without a brace avoids the cost and patient deconditioning associated with a brace and complications and costs associated with long-term bed rest if a TLSO or body cast is not available.
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Review
Catastrophizing-a prognostic factor for outcome in patients with low back pain: a systematic review.
Psychological factors including catastrophizing thoughts are believed to influence the development of chronic low back pain (LBP). ⋯ There is some evidence that catastrophizing as a coping strategy might lead to delayed recovery. The influence of catastrophizing in patients with LBP is not fully established and should be further investigated. Of particular importance is the establishment of cutoff levels for identifying patients at risk.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Type 1 Modic changes was a significant risk factor for 1-year outcome in sick-listed low back pain patients: a nested cohort study using magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine.
It is not clear whether Modic changes (MC) is associated with low back pain (LBP) outcome. ⋯ The only degenerative manifestation negatively associated with outcome was Type 1 MC that affected 18% of the cohort at baseline and implied an increased risk for no improvement in pain and function and for U-RTW, even after adjustment for other prognostic factors.
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Psychological factors are believed to influence the development of chronic low back pain. To date, it is not known how fear-avoidance beliefs (FABs) influence the treatment efficacy in low back pain. ⋯ Evidence suggests that FABs are associated with poor treatment outcome in patients with LBP of less than 6 months, and thus early treatment, including interventions to reduce FABs, may avoid delayed recovery and chronicity. Patients with high FABs are more likely to improve when FABs are addressed in treatments than when these beliefs are ignored, and treatment strategies should be modified if FABs are present.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Primary Spinal Tumor Mortality Score (PSTMS): a novel scoring system for predicting poor survival.
Although the surgical and oncological therapies of primary spinal tumors (PSTs) have changed significantly over the last few decades, the prognosis of this rare disease is still poor. The decision-making process in the multidisciplinary management is handicapped by the lack of large-scale population-based prognostic studies. ⋯ The present study identifies six predictive variables for mortality in PSTs. Using these six variables, an easy-to-use scoring system was developed that can be applied to the estimation of postoperative survival in all types of PST patients.