The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society
-
Selective thoracic fusion may cause spinal imbalance in certain patients; how the spinal alignment changes over time after surgery is highly correlated with the final spinal balance. ⋯ Selective thoracic fusion is prone to cause leftward spinal imbalance in Lenke 1C scoliosis patients. Postoperative spinal alignment remodeling can facilitate recovery of spinal balance in some patients. Postoperative spinal imbalance in Lenke 1C scoliosis patients could be prevented by selecting stable vertebra or the vertebrae above as LIV, checking the balance condition during surgery, or considering ratio criteria when selecting candidates for selective thoracic fusion.
-
To date, most reports on the incidence of adverse events (AEs) in spine surgery have been retrospective and dependent on data abstraction from hospital-based administrative databases. To our knowledge, there have been no previous rigorously performed prospective analysis of all AEs occurring in the entire population of patients presenting to an academic quaternary referral center. ⋯ Major spinal surgery in the adult is associated with a high incidence of intra- and postoperative complications. We identified a very high rate of previously unrecognized postoperative complications, which adversely affect LOS. Without strict adherence to a prospective data collection system, the true complexity of this surgery may be greatly underestimated.
-
Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a common cause of back pain. Patients who fail conservative management may face the morbidity of surgery. Alternative treatment modalities could have a significant impact on disease progression and patients' quality of life. ⋯ Treatment of punctured rabbit intervertebral discs with AAV2-BMP2 or AAV2-TIMP1 helps delay degenerative changes, as seen on MRI, histologic sampling, serum biochemical analysis, and biomechanical testing. Although data from animal models should be extrapolated to the human condition with caution, this study supports the potential use of gene therapy for the treatment of IDD.
-
Several investigators have identified an explosive increase in spinal injection rates in the Veterans Administration and Medicare populations. Furthermore, utilization of spinal injection procedures appears to vary by geographic location, subspecialty, and practice setting. Medicare claims analysis has shown that a small percentage of physicians perform a disproportionately large number of injections. Although Medicare utilization has been well characterized, the utilization patterns for privately insured individuals are not clearly known. ⋯ These findings demonstrate that relatively few providers are responsible for a disproportionately high percentage of interventional spine procedures. This pattern of marked overutilization by a minority of providers is the dominant characteristic of utilization within all specialties.
-
Review Case Reports
The imaging and management of nonconsecutive pars interarticularis defects: a case report and review of literature.
Lumbar spondylolysis is a well-recognized condition occurring in adolescents because of repetitive overuse in sports. Multiple-level spondylolysis involving consecutive lower lumbar segments are rare. Several authors have reported failure of conservative treatment in the management of multiple-level pars fractures. ⋯ We report a rare case of bilateral pars fractures involving nonconsecutive segments. Multiplane reconstruction of CT images and MRI are very useful in planning treatment and follow-up. Conservative management may be used to treat multilevel nonconsecutive pars fractures.