The spine journal : official journal of the North American Spine Society
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Surgical treatment of thoracolumbar tuberculosis (TB) aims at spinal cord decompression, focus debridement, spine stability, and deformity correction. However, several problems exist in treating multiple segmental thoracolumbar TB, including reducing surgical trauma with effective incision exposure; ensuring the effective long-armed fixation, and maintaining the possibility for revisionary surgery in cases of treatment failure. ⋯ Combined with anti-TB chemotherapy, the discussed surgical technique can show improved lesion clearance, decompression of the anterior aspect of the spine, bone graft fusion, internal fixation of outside lesions, drainage and lead to positive treatment outcomes.
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Observational Study
Indirect effects of decompression surgery on glycemic homeostasis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and lumbar spinal stenosis.
Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) are presumed to experience difficulty when performing regular daily exercise, although such exercise is of paramount importance for glucose homeostasis and control. Therefore, decompression surgery, which can help patients perform regular physical activity, would have indirect positive effects on blood glucose control in LSS patients with DM. ⋯ The present study demonstrates the reduction in HbA(1c) level in patients with DM and LSS after decompression surgery with or without fusion. We believe this reduction in the HbA(1c) level may be a result of increased physical activity, subsequent to successful surgical decompression of the cauda equina.
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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. Patients with PD often present with abnormal posturing. ⋯ Global coronal malalignment is more prevalent in patients with PD than in controls. Greater severity of PD was significantly associated with greater magnitude of scoliosis Cobb angle, even after adjusting for the effects of patient age and gender. However, direction of scoliosis and side of global coronal malalignment were not significantly associated with the dominant laterality of PD symptoms.
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Posterior cervical fusion (PCF) has been shown to be an effective treatment for cervical spondylosis, but is associated with a 9% complication rate and high costs. To limit such complications and costs, it is imperative that proper selection of surgical candidates occur for those most likely to do well with the surgery. Affective disorders, such as depression, are associated with worsened outcomes after lumbar surgery; however, this effect has not been evaluated in patients undergoing cervical spine surgery. ⋯ Of patients who undergo PCF, those with a greater degree of preoperative depression have lower improvements in postoperative QOL compared with those with less depression. Additionally, patients with better preoperative health states also attain lower 1-year QOL improvements.
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The Surgical Apgar Score (SAS), a simple metric based on intraoperative heart rate, blood pressure, and blood loss, was developed in general and vascular surgery to predict 30-day major postoperative complications and mortality. No validation of SAS has been performed in spine surgery. ⋯ Surgical Apgar Score allows risk stratification and has a good discriminatory power in patients undergoing spine surgery.