Spine
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Retrospective case series. ⋯ Patients undergoing first-time vertebral augmentation should be considered for vertebral biopsy. Tissue examination is useful and may reveal pathologic fracture or possible infection. However, if infection is reported, clinical and laboratory correlation are important to make a diagnosis of osteomyelitis.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Efficacy of steroid and nonsteroid caudal epidural injections for low back pain and sciatica: a prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical trial.
Prospective, double-blind, randomized, case-control study. ⋯ CEI containing local anesthetic and steroids or WFI seems to be effective when treating patients with LBP and sciatica. CEI containing steroid preparations demonstrated better and faster efficacy.
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Retrospective clinical cohort study. ⋯ Translaminar screw fixation is a straightforward and effective technique for short-segment fusion in the lumbar spine. For patients with a strict indication for spondylodesis, intact posterior elements (lamina and facets) and a low preoperative disc height, translaminar screw fixation represents a successful fixation technique in the lumbar spine with good long-term results.
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Variation in abundance and structure of chondroadherin (CHAD) were studied in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of scoliotic and normal human discs. ⋯ As CHAD can interact with both the ECM and the cells, it can provide a mechanism for regulating cell metabolism and ECM structure, and so play a role in promoting matrix homeostasis. Thus, changes in CHAD abundance or structure could be associated with the pathologic changes occurring in the scoliotic IVD.
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Microarray gene expression profiling, quantitative gene expression analysis, and immunohistochemistry was used to investigate molecular variations between nucleus pulposus (NP) and anulus fibrosus (AF) of the dog intervertebral disc (IVD). ⋯ This study reports on the expression of molecules that have not been described previously in IVD, in non-notochordal discs comparable with human. Interspecies differences were noted between rat and dog tissues, whereas variations between caudal and lumbar discs were less prominent. The NP of the beagle as a chondrodystrophoid dog breed is potentially more similar to the human than the NP of species whose discs do not naturally degenerate. Therefore, studies on appropriate species may contribute to a better understanding of the cell types residing in the IVD.