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Cureus 2021 May 12;13(5):e14995. Epub 2021 May 12.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, JPN.

spondylitis is a relatively rare disease. The primary risk factor is an immunocompromised status. Here, we report an immunocompetent patient who developed spondylitis. Read More

BMC Musculoskelet Disord 2021 Jun 7;22(1):525. Epub 2021 Jun 7.

Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Institute of Endocrinology, NHC Key Laboratory of Diagnosis and Treatment of Thyroid Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, P. R. China.

Background: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a heterogeneous connective tissue disorder characterized by increased bone fragility and a series of extraskeletal manifestations. Approximately 90 % of OI cases are caused by type I collagen variants encoded by the collagen type I alpha 1 (COL1A1) or type I alpha 2 (COL1A2) gene. Lumbar Scheuermann's disease is an atypical type of Scheuermann's disease accompanied by Schmorl's nodes and irregular endplates but without pronounced kyphosis. Read More

Medicine (Baltimore) 2021 Jun;100(22):e26191

Laboratory of Statistics, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan.

Abstract: Case-control studies by examining the lumbar spine computed tomography (CT) findings focusing on the spinous processes."Passing spine" was defined as a lumbar degenerative change observed on CT images. In contrast, kissing spine, which is also an image finding, has been acknowledged as an established clinical condition. Read More

Pain Med 2021 Jun 4. Epub 2021 Jun 4.

Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.

Incorporating indicated interventions in a multimodal approach to manage musculoskeletal pain has become standard of care. For example, in patients with radicular pain associated with intervertebral disc herniation or lumbar spinal stenosis, epidural steroid injections (ESI) are commonly used and often improve pain and function while avoiding more invasive surgical approaches. Recently, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has allowed remote evaluations to mitigate COVID-19 transmission using telemedicine. Read More

J Pain Res 2021 27;14:1483-1494. Epub 2021 May 27.

Research Center of Experimental Acupuncture Science, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.

Chronic low back pain (CLBP), lasting >3 months, is the end result of multiple pathogenic factors. Unfortunately, little is known about CLBP pathogenesis, which limits its advancements in clinical therapy and disease management. This paper summarizes the known pathological axes of CLBP, involving both peripheral and central systems. Read More

J Clin Med 2021 May 14;10(10). Epub 2021 May 14.

Department of Trauma, Orthopedic and Plastic Surgery, University Medical Center Goettingen, 37075 Goettingen, Germany.

In recent decades, magnetically controlled growing rods (MCGR) were established to treat progressive early-onset scoliosis. The aim of this investigation was to assess the effect of long-term MCGR with continuous distraction on intervertebral discs in scoliotic children. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of 33 children with spinal muscular atrophy was analyzed by grading intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) and measuring intervertebral disc volume. Read More

Diagnostics (Basel) 2021 May 22;11(6). Epub 2021 May 22.

Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Medical Faculty, University Dusseldorf, D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany.

Lumbar intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is characterized by structural and compositional changes. This study aimed to assess the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content of IVDs of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and healthy controls using GAG chemical exchange saturation transfer (gagCEST) imaging. Ten AIS patients (mean age 18. Read More

Clin Sports Med 2021 Jul;40(3):501-511

Spine Institute of Arizona, 9735 North 90th Place, Scottsdale, AZ 85258, USA.

Lumbar disk herniation is the most common surgical condition of the spine. High-level athletes participate in activities that place extreme loads on the intervertebral disks. These repetitive loads may lead to an elevated risk for degenerative disk disease, which in turn predisposes to disk herniations. Read More

Eur Spine J 2021 May 23. Epub 2021 May 23.

Neurobiology Research Unit, University Hospital Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Purpose: The molecular mechanism behind pain in degenerative disc disease (DDD) and chronic low back pain (LBP) patients is largely unknown. This present study examines the association of LBP and disability to mediators of the inflammatory cascade, as indexed by mRNA gene expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine markers in the intervertebral disc (IVD).

Methods: Biopsies of the annulus fibrosus (AF) and the nucleus pulposes (NP) from patients with DDD undergoing 1-2 level fusion surgery at L4/L5 or L5/S1 were obtained from total of 34 patients [9 M, 25 F] with average age of 53 [32-63]. Read More

JMIR Med Inform 2021 May 21;9(5):e14755. Epub 2021 May 21.

Xi'an Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases, The Affiliated Hospital of Northwest University Xi'an Number 3 Hospital, Xi'an, China.

Background: Disk herniation and disk bulge are two common disorders of lumbar intervertebral disks (IVDs) that often result in numbness, pain in the lower limbs, and lower back pain. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is one of the most efficient techniques for detecting lumbar diseases and is widely used for making clinical diagnoses at hospitals. However, there is a lack of efficient tools for effectively interpreting massive amounts of MR images to meet the requirements of many radiologists. Read More

BMC Neurol 2021 May 19;21(1):202. Epub 2021 May 19.

Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Background: Spinal neuroarthropathy (SNA), also known as Charcot spine, is an uncommon aggressive arthropathy, secondary to loss of proprioceptive and nociceptive feedback from the spine. A diagnosis of SNA is frequently delayed due to the scarcity of symptoms in its early stages, leading to significant neurological deterioration. Therefore, prompt suspicion of the disease is critical to providing better outcomes. Read More

Comput Biol Med 2021 May 12;134:104477. Epub 2021 May 12.

Department of Orthopedics, Xijing Hospital, The Air Force Medical University, Changlexi Road No. 127, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, 710032, PR China. Electronic address:

Background: Different constructs are applied in revision surgery (RS) for adjacent segment disease (ASD) aiming to further decompress and fixate the affected segment(s) in two ways: replacing or preserving the primary implants. This study aimed to compare the biomechanical properties of four constructs with different configurations.

Methods: An T12-L5 finite element (FE) model was constructed and validated. Read More

Eur Cell Mater 2021 May 17;41:517-530. Epub 2021 May 17.

SMBD-Jewish General Hospital, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, 3755 Cote Ste-Catherine Road, Room F-602, Montreal, QC, CAN, H3T

Tungsten is incorporated in many industrial goods, military applications and medical devices due to its ability to impart flexibility, strength and conductance to materials. Emerging evidence has questioned the safety of tungsten exposure as studies have demonstrated it can promote tumour formation, induce pulmonary disease and alter immune function. Although tungsten is excreted from the body it can accumulate in certain organs such as the brain, colon, liver, kidneys, spleen and bones, where most of the bioaccumulation occurs. Read More

Eur Radiol 2021 May 15. Epub 2021 May 15.

Department of Radiology B, Hôpital Cochin, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), 27 rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, 75014, Paris, France.

Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic performance and interobserver agreement of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol that only includes sagittal T2-weighted Dixon fat and water images as an alternative to a standard protocol that includes both sagittal T1-weighted sequence and T2-weighted Dixon water images as reference standard in lumbar degenerative disc disease with Modic changes.

Methods: From February 2017 to March 2019, 114 patients who underwent lumbar spine MRI for low back pain were included in this retrospective study. All MRI showed Modic changes at least at one vertebral level. Read More

J Clin Neurosci 2021 Jun 29;88:5-9. Epub 2021 Mar 29.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Busan, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:

This study aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of endoscopic spinal surgery (ESS) and minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) for degenerative lumbar disease (DLD) through meta-analysis. The Medline (via PubMed), Cochrane, Scopus, and Embase databases were searched for studies that evaluated the outcomes of ESS and MIS-TLIF in DLD, including visual analog scale (VAS) score for low back pain, VAS score for leg pain, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and complications published between January 2000 and August 2020. Two authors extracted the data independently. Read More

Orthop Surg 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Third Hospital Orthopaedics Department, Beijing Key Laboratory of Spinal Disease Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Purpose: Numerous studies have applied a variety of methods to assess paraspinal muscle degeneration. However, the methodological differences in imaging evaluation may lead to imprecise or inconsistent results. This article aimed to provide a pragmatic summary review of the current imaging modalities, measurement protocols, and imaging parameters in the evaluation of paraspinal muscle fat infiltration (FI) in MRI studies. Read More

Orthop Surg 2021 May 4. Epub 2021 May 4.

Department of Spine Surgery, the 1st Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.

Symptomatic lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is widely treated using percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD). In the present PELD surgery, performing decompression under endoscope still takes a long time to explore the rupture site of annulus fibrosus, resulting in prolonged operation time and over-invasion of the undegenerated annulus fibrosus. A wide range of intraoperative exploration also induces an iatrogenic injury of the normal annulus fibrosus, even aggravating intervertebral disc degeneration, which may lead to early postoperative recurrence in severe case. Read More

Global Spine J 2021 Apr 28:21925682211012323. Epub 2021 Apr 28.

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, 74678Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, People's Hospital of Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.

Study Design: A prospective study.

Objectives: Intervertebral disc degenerative disease is a common and frequently-occurring disease in adults and is the main cause of lower back pain. However, there is a lack of universal animal models to study disc degeneration. Read More

Folia Morphol (Warsz) 2021 Apr 26. Epub 2021 Apr 26.

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University, Krakow, Poland.

Background: Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of low back pain. Several grading systems have been developed for both morphological and radiological assessment. The aim of this study was to assess the morphological and radiological characteristics of IVD degeneration and validate popular radiological Pfirrmann scale against morphological Thompson grading system. Read More

Zhongguo Gu Shang 2021 Apr;34(4):363-7

Department of Spinal Surgery, Maoming People's Hospital, Southern Medical University, Maoming 525000, Guangdong, China.

Objective: To investigate the expression and clinical significance of receptor interacting protein serine-threonine kinases 1 (RIPK1) in the nucleus pulposus of patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH).

Methods: Nucleus pulposus tissue specimens of 40 patients with LDH patients underwent surgical treatment from January 2016 to January 2018 as the case group, and nucleus pulposus tissue specimens of 30 patients with lumbar spine fracture underwent surgical treatment at the same time as the control group. The expression of RIPK1 mRNA and protein of receptor interaction were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blot, respectively. Read More

Pol Merkur Lekarski 2021 Apr;49(290):150-152

Department of Neurosurgery, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland.

Damage to large abdominal vessels during lumbar discectomy surgery is a rare but life-threatening complication.

A Case Report: The authors present the case of a 57-year-old patient who received surgery for critical degenerative lumbal spinal stenosis on the L4-L5 level. The diagnosis was based on strong right sciatica and neurogenic claudication. Read More

Biomed Res Int 2021 5;2021:6653579. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215006, China.

Considering the increasingly incidence rate of lower extremity arterial occlusive disease and difficult to distinguish from lumbar disc herniation, it is very necessary to exclude lower extremity arterial occlusive disease resulting in lower limb symptoms from lumbar disc herniation. More importantly, who have a higher risk of combining with lower extremity arterial occlusive disease and misdiagnosed as lumbar disc herniation? Why those patients are easy to be misdiagnosed as lumbar disc herniation? It is worth analyzing and discussing. The risk factors including age, gender, the medical history of high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking and coronary, pulse pressure, lumbar disc herniation segment and type, ankle-brachial index, and straight leg raising test were observed. Read More

Medicine (Baltimore) 2021 Apr;100(16):e25652

Department of Clinical Korean Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea.

Background: Lumbar herniated intervertebral disc (LHIVD) is a common disease that causes low back pain. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with conservative conventional treatment is known to be effective at treating LHIVD, but evidence for complex TCM therapies with conventional intervention has not been sufficiently collected to facilitate quality assessment and synthesis of data.

Methods And Analysis: Studies were retrieved from the following databases: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, MEDLINE/PubMed, 7 Korean databases (Korean Studies Information Service System, Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, Korean National Assembly Digital Library, Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors, National Digital Science Library, and Database Periodical Information Academic), Japan Medical Abstracts Society, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure. Read More

Acta Radiol 2021 Apr 20:2841851211010391. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tübingen, Germany.

Background: Little is known about the associations between cardiovascular risk factors (CRF) and disc degeneration (DD).

Purpose: To evaluate the potential association between CRFs and intervertebral DD in a population-based sample.

Methods: A total of 400 participants from the community-based KORA-study were assessed in terms of CRFs, specifically obesity, hypertension, diabetes, elevated LDL-c, low HDL-c, elevated triglycerides, smoking status, and alcohol consumption. Read More

Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2021 1;9:646079. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Bone and Joint Research Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan.

While spinal fusion using rigid rods remains the gold standard treatment modality for various lumbar degenerative conditions, its adverse effects, including accelerated adjacent segment disease (ASD), are well known. In order to better understand the performance of semirigid constructs using polyetheretherketone (PEEK) in fixation surgeries, the objective of this study was to analyze the biomechanical performance of PEEK versus Ti rods using a geometrically patient-specific poroelastic finite element (FE) analyses. Ten subject-specific preoperative models were developed, and the validity of the models was evaluated with previous studies. Read More

J Biomech 2021 May 20;121:110392. Epub 2021 Mar 20.

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine, United States; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, United States; Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, United States. Electronic address:

High body mass index (BMI) and obesity have been implicated as risk factors for lumbar degenerative disc disease and low back pain. Despite this, there is limited in vivo data to quantify how obesity influences the mechanical function of intervertebral discs (IVD) in response to activities of daily living. Recently, our lab has developed methodologies to non-invasively measure in vivo IVD deformation resulting from activities of daily living using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and solid modeling techniques. Read More

Int J Mol Sci 2021 Mar 31;22(7). Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan.

Transforaminal lumber interbody fusion (TLIF) is the last resort to address the lumber degenerative disorders such as spondylolisthesis, causing lower back pain. The current surgical intervention for these abnormalities includes open TLIF. However, in recent years, minimally invasive TLIF (MIS-TLIF) has gained a high momentum, as it could minimize the risk of infection, blood loss, and post-operative complications pertaining to fusion surgery. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021 03 28;18(7). Epub 2021 Mar 28.

Faculty of Physiotherapy, University School of Physical Education in Wroclaw, 51-612 Wroclaw, Poland.

The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of stabilizing training for the deep core muscles of the lumbar spine in subjects with degenerative disc disease. This study was conducted on 38 participants. The participants were divided into two groups: the extrusion group (EXT, = 17) and the protrusion group (PRO, = 21). Read More

Zhongguo Gu Shang 2021 Mar;34(3):249-54

Department of Orthopaedics, Beijing Longfu Hospital, Beijing 100010, China.

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of transforaminal endoscopy combined with interspinous fusion in the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis with instability in the elderly.

Methods: From February 2018 to February 2019, 82 elderly patients with lumbar spinal stenosis and instability were divided into control group and observation group. In the control group, there were 23 males and 18 females;the age was (68. Read More

Vet World 2021 Feb 23;14(2):492-498. Epub 2021 Feb 23.

Department of Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.

Background And Aim: Lumbosacral intervertebral disk disease (IVDD) in cats usually develops concurrent with constipation, spondylosis deformans, and sacralization. However, the prevalence of lumbar IVDD in cats was considered low, and there was less information on the incidence of non-traumatic lumbosacral vertebral abnormalities that may affect large bowel dysfunction. This study aimed to retrospectively investigate the relationship between non-traumatic lumbosacral vertebral abnormalities, both congenital and acquired, and large bowel dysfunction in cats. Read More