Spine
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Twenty volunteers and 20 patients with no prior spine surgery had two standing lateral radiographs taken, on the average, 66 months apart and 2 weeks apart, respectively. ⋯ The pelvic radius technique is recommended for evaluating lordosis to the pelvis because this approach provided not only good measurement reliability on standing radiographs for lumbopelvic lordosis, but also determination of pelvic balance over the hips and the option to assess pelvic morphology quantitatively. Lumbopelvic lordosis and pelvic balance were strongly correlative. This finding, along with higher reliability and lower longitudinal variation on repeated radiographs, indicated greater clinical application for these specific measurements.
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The results from cervical laminoplasty in 18 patients with diabetes mellitus were compared with results from the same procedure in 34 nondiabetic patients matched for age, gender, and disease. ⋯ Although patients with diabetes mellitus who had cervical myelopathy experienced benefits from cervical laminoplasty similar to those of nondiabetic patients, the patients with diabetes were more likely to have wound complication. Furthermore, the negative correlation between the recovery rate and the preoperative HbA1 value might suggest that long-term diabetes control of more than 2 to 3 months before surgery at least is recommended for a favorable surgical outcome.