Spine
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A retrospective assessment of the effectiveness of lumbar pedicle screws versus laminar hooks in lumbar curve correction with double major curves in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. ⋯ Lumbar pedicle screws may offer greater lumbar curve correction, better maintenance of correction, and greater correction of the uninstrumented spine below double major curves. No complications were associated with the placement of pedicle screws.
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Comparative Study
Viscoelastic relaxation and regional blood flow response to spinal cord compression and decompression.
To better understand the relationships between primary mechanical factors of spinal cord trauma and secondary mechanisms of injury, this study evaluated regional blood flow and somatosensory evoked potential function in an in vivo canine model with controlled velocity spinal cord displacement and real-time piston-spinal cord interface pressure feedback. ⋯ Despite rapid cord relaxation of more than 50% within 5 minutes after maximum compression, somatosensory evoked potential conduction recovered only with early decompression. Spinal cord decompression was associated with an early recovery of regional spinal cord blood flow and somatosensory evoked potential recovery. By 3 hours, spinal cord blood flow was similar in both the compressed and decompressed groups, despite that somatosensory evoked potential recovery occurred only in the decompressed group.
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This study evaluated the different forms of treatment of camptomelic dysplasia, a rare form of short-limbed dwarfism. ⋯ The authors advocate anterior/posterior uninstrumented fusion and halo cast immobilization postoperatively to prevent curve progression and avoid the potentially fatal sequelae associated with this disorder.
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A questionnaire was given to 3,042 Japanese workers at a factory in 1992. It surveyed age, gender, weight, height, job classification, and work environment, as well as the perceived causes, onset age, and characteristics of low back pain. Family history of low back pain among first-degree relatives and perception of physical condition also were assessed. ⋯ The physical job demands show a clear association with the point and lifetime prevalence of low back pain, and improvements in work conditions may decrease low back symptoms among workers. It is likely that a family history of low back pain and physical and mental conditions of workers also should be considered in the management of low back pain.
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This is a cadaver study in which video fluoroscopy is used to measure motion of the unstable spine at C1-C2 during intubation maneuvers. ⋯ Although nasal intubation is the accepted procedure for intubation of the unstable spine, nasal and oral intubation seemed to have the same ability to narrow the space available for the cord in the model in this study. Great care should be taken while performing the chin lift/jaw thrust maneuvers in preparation for intubation, because these pre-intubation techniques caused the most motion and hence narrowed the space available for the cord in the unstable cervical spine.