Articles: back-pain.
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Recognised methods for the treatment of spondylodiscitis in correspondence to the immobilisation are systemic antibiotic therapy. However, the available data for recommendations of specific antibiotic therapy are very heterogeneous. The aim of this study was to focus on the adjuvant antibiotic therapy in surgical treated cases of spondylodiscitis and to reach a guideline regarding its application in patients' spondylodiscitis. ⋯ In addition, suitable antibiotic therapy should be administered in correspondence to a culture and sensitivity testing and should be maintained for at least 12 weeks, even when a reduction of inflammatory markers by 50 % after 2 weeks has already been achieved. It is noteworthy to point out the high probability of coexistence of spondylodiscitis with diabetes mellitus, so that spondylodiscitis should always be considered in diabetic patients with back pain and increased levels of inflammatory markers. A significant reduction in the very long time until reaching a definitive diagnosis should be achieved.
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Patients with spinal stenosis with concomitant degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS) and predominant back pain (PBP) have been shown to have inferior outcome after surgery. Studies comparing outcome according to preoperative pain predominance and treatment received are lacking. ⋯ Patients with PBP operated with DF report better outcomes in terms of pain, function, and health-related quality of life than patients with D. Although these differences are significant on a group level, they may fail to reach minimal clinical significant difference. Patients with PLP report significantly more improvement in terms of BP with DF compared with D, but because of baseline differences in preoperative BP, these improvements may not be explained by the added fusion per se. At the 2-year follow-up, no significant differences were observed between the D and DF patients in either the PBP or PLP groups, but greater loss to follow-up in the DF groups could potentially bias these findings.
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A retrospective review ⋯ TLIF may induce uneven changes in foraminal morphometry. Cage position may be the major determinant of this result.
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The prevalence of chronic pain has been estimated to be 19% in the European population and criteria for disabling chronic pain were found in approximately 7% of the German population. Clinical care for these patients is provided in ambulant and hospital-associated facilities. In this context, invasive interventions are part of the diagnosis and treatment of several specific diseases. Current data on the structure of clinical care based regional anesthesia for chronic pain patients in Germany are not available. ⋯ This survey describes the current structures of specialized pain facilities for regional anesthesia in Germany including responses from predominantly anesthesiologists in a hospital-associated setting. In light of the limited evidence in the literature there is no consensus on the interventional therapeutic management of chronic pain. Especially the application of a series of blocks and the frequency as well as criteria to support continuing or terminating a series of regional anesthesia interventions are not sufficiently evaluated. This survey also gives an incentive for a possible revision of the existing practice in regional anesthesia in the context of multimodal therapy and currently existing guidelines in future clinical studies.