The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society
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Percutaneous intradiscal therapies are gaining popularity as a regenerative treatment option for spinal disc degeneration. The risks, benefits, and possible complications associated with such procedures have been poorly defined. As these procedures are performed with increasing frequency, the likelihood that clinicians will be faced with significant complications also increases. ⋯ Complications associated with the intradiscal injection of agents, such as stem cells, fibrin glue, adipose tissue, or bone marrow, have been poorly defined. Given the nature of the degenerating disc, serious adverse events, including discitis, osteomyelitis, and extrusion of disc contents, may occur.
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Spinal cord injury can lead to severe functional impairments secondary to axonal damage, neuronal loss, and demyelination. The injured spinal cord has limited regrowth of damaged axons. Treatment remains controversial, given inconsistent functional improvement. Previous studies demonstrated functional recovery of rats with spinal cord contusion after transplantation of rat fetal neural stem cells. ⋯ Acute local and distal transplantation of hNSCs into the contused spinal cord led to significant functional recovery in the rat model. No statistical difference was found between the two techniques.
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Adverse effects of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) in spinal surgery have previously been observed. However, because of its size, scope, and nature, the US Food and Drug Administration's database of postmarketing reports is useful for detecting new and unexpected safety concerns. ⋯ Because of their duration, scope, and expense, prospective studies designed to estimate the risk of rare adverse events may be impractical. Despite its imperfections, postmarketing surveillance helps to narrow the focus by revealing patterns and prioritizing topics for further research. One should not extrapolate from these results to the rhBMP-2 experience as a whole; the findings reported here might not be representative. This analysis indicates that serious adverse events can occur after the use of rhBMP-2 in spinal surgery and raises many points that surgeons may wish to consider when deciding when and how to use this product in their patients.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Psychometric properties of selected tests in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis.
The psychometric properties of many outcome tools commonly used with patients with lumbar spinal stenosis have yet to be examined. ⋯ The results of our study indicate that the Oswestry Disability Index, SSS, and Patient Specific Functional Scale possess adequate psychometric properties to be used in the outcome assessment of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. However, further investigation is needed to validate these findings in other samples of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis and nonspecific low back pain.