Articles: surgery.
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Because lumbar magnetic resonance (MR) imaging fails to identify a treatable cause of chronic sciatica in nearly 1 million patients annually, the authors conducted MR neurography and interventional MR imaging in 239 consecutive patients with sciatica in whom standard diagnosis and treatment failed to effect improvement. ⋯ This Class A quality evaluation of MR neurography's diagnostic efficacy revealed that piriformis muscle asymmetry and sciatic nerve hyperintensity at the sciatic notch exhibited a 93% specificity and 64% sensitivity in distinguishing patients with piriformis syndrome from those without who had similar symptoms (p < 0.01). Evaluation of the nerve beyond the proximal foramen provided eight additional diagnostic categories affecting 96% of these patients. More than 80% of the population good or excellent functional outcome was achieved.
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J Spinal Disord Tech · Feb 2005
Clinical TrialComputer-guided percutaneous interbody fixation and fusion of the L5-S1 disc: a 2-year prospective study.
The clinical outcomes of lumbar fusion are diminished by the complications associated with the surgical approach. Posterior approaches cause segmental muscular necrosis and anterior approaches risk visceral and vascular injury. This report details a two-year prospective study of a percutaneous method which avoids the major problems associated with existing approaches. ⋯ Percutaneous fusion of the lumbosacral spine appears safe and provides excellent clinical results with a minimal amount of associated tissue trauma.
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A report of five cases of thoracolumbar osteoid osteoma treated with combined computer-assisted and gamma probe-guided high-speed drill excision. ⋯ The combination of both computer-assisted surgery and gamma probe-guided high-speed drill excision for osteoid osteoma of the spine helps to localize and excise the nidus of the osteoid osteoma with minimal bone resection of the posterior spinal structures.
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The lifetime prevalence of spinal pain has been reported as 54% to 80%, with as many as 60% of patients continuing to have chronic pain five years or longer after the initial episode. Spinal pain is associated with significant economic, societal, and health impact. Available evidence documents a wide degree of variance in the definition and the practice of interventional pain management. ⋯ These guidelines included the evaluation of evidence for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in managing chronic spinal pain and recommendations for managing spinal pain. However, these guidelines do not constitute inflexible treatment recommendations. These guidelines do not represent "a standard of care".