European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society
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To compare the long-term clinical results and complications of two revision strategies for patients with failed total disc replacements (TDRs). ⋯ Revision of a failed TDR is clinically beneficial in about half of the patients. No clear benefits for additional TDR removal as compared to posterolateral instrumented fusion alone could be identified. Particularly, when considering the substantial risks and complications, great caution is warranted with removal of the TDR. These slides can be retrieved under Electronic Supplementary Material.
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To document the role of sub-clinical infections in disc disorders and investigate the existence of microbiome in intervertebral discs (IVD). ⋯ Our study challenges the hitherto concept of sterility in healthy IVD and documented a microbiome even in MRI normal healthy discs. The varying abundance of bacteria between ND, DD, and DH documents 'dysbiosis' as a possible etiology of DD. Many known pathogens were identified in greater abundance than Propionibacterium acnes, and there was evidence for the presence of the gut/skin/spine microbiome axis.
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Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is useful to evaluate lumbar nerves visually and quantitatively. Multi-band sensitivity encoding (MB-SENSE) is a technique to reduce the scan time. This study aimed to investigate if super-multi-gradient DTI with multi-band sensitivity encoding (MB-SENSE) is better in evaluating lumbar nerves than the conventional method. ⋯ High-resolution multi-directional DTI with MB-SENSE may be useful to visualize nerve entrapments and may allow for more accurate DTI parameter quantification with opportunities for clinical diagnostic applications.
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Spontaneous regressions of calcified thoracic disc herniations (TDH) have been rarely described. Since now, no previous papers hypothesized that radiological factors could be able to predict the evolution of the herniation. This study shows that the radiodensity of the herniated material in herniations with spontaneous resolution might differ from that of operated herniations. ⋯ Qualitative differences between calcified TDH that resolve spontaneously or need surgical treatment might be shown by differences of radiodensity. This comparative study, in spite of the limitations due to small numbers, provides a new insight in the interpretation of the phenomenon of spontaneous resolution of calcified TDH. These slides can be retrieved under Electronic Supplementary Material.
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Unfortunately, Fig. 7 and last paragraph of the result section have been incorrectly published. The complete corrected Fig. 7 and last paragraph of the results part (IDP measurements) have been as follows.