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Spine J 2021 Apr 10. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:

Background Context: Recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) is the growth factor with the most striking osteoinductive performance in orthopedic operations; it is also able to induce heterotopic bone formation. However, there has been little clinical research on Escherichia coli-derived BMP-2 (E.BMP-2). Read More

Spine J 2021 Apr 10. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

Innlandet Hospital Trust, The Research Center for Age-Related Functional Decline and Disease, PO Box 68, N-2313, Ottestad, Norway.

Background Context: Criteria for success after surgical treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) have been defined previously; however, there are no clear criteria for failure and worsening after surgery as assessed by patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).

Purpose: We aimed to quantify changes in standard PROMs that most accurately identified failure and worsening after surgery for LSS.

Study Design /setting: Retrospective analysis of prospective national spine registry data with 12-months follow-up. Read More

J Neurol Surg A Cent Eur Neurosurg 2021 Apr 12. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Introduction:  This study was conducted to compare bone-filled intervertebral cages with autologous bone chips for instrumented lumbar interbody fusion in patients with spinal stenosis and degenerative spondylolisthesis.

Methods:  Surgery consisted of posterior instrumentation and decompression, diskectomy, and intervertebral fusion using a polyetheretherketone (PEEK) cage surrounded and filled with spongious bone chips (group 1,  = 57) or spongious bone chips alone (group 2,  = 37). The choice of method was left to the discretion of the surgeon. Read More

Global Spine J 2021 Apr 12:21925682211000707. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Institute of Integrative Medicine, 107652Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, People's Republic of China.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Objective: Recently, there has been a rise in children and adolescents developing low back pain and/or sciatica. Degenerative lumbar spine MRI phenotypes can occur in this population but reports have been sporadic and the true incidence of such spine changes remains debatable. Read More

Spine Surg Relat Res 2021 31;5(2):98-103. Epub 2020 Aug 31.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Japan.

Introduction: Posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) is a widely used effective, safe, and established treatment for degenerative spinal disorders. Adjacent segment disease (ASD) is one of the serious concerns governing the clinical results following spinal fusion surgery. Cortical bone trajectory (CBT) is an alternative and less-invasive technique for lumbar pedicle screw placement. Read More

Spine Surg Relat Res 2021 9;5(2):91-97. Epub 2020 Oct 9.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Capital Corps of Republic of Korea Army, Yongin, Korea.

Introduction: Despite technical developments in decompression without fusion, many studies still assert that instability could be increased in patients with spinal stenosis and lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis after spinal decompression surgery without fusion. Thus, this study aimed to describe and assess the clinical outcomes of the semi-circumferential decompression (SCD) technique used for microsurgical en-bloc total ligamentum flavectomy with preservation of the facet joint in treating patients who have lumbar spinal stenosis with two-level degenerative spondylolisthesis.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical and radiologic outcomes of 14 patients who had spinal stenosis with two-level Meyerding grade I degenerative spondylolisthesis. Read More

Global Spine J 2021 Apr 12:21925682211003852. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Spine Service, 76434Indian Spinal Injuries Center, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, India.

Study Design: A retrospective case-control study.

Objective: Only a few studies have studied the incidence of new-onset SI joint pain following lumbar spine fusion surgery. We aimed to explore the association between new-onset SI joint pain following Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF) for degenerative spine disorders and changes in spinopelvic parameters. Read More

Acta Neurochir Suppl 2021 ;131:367-372

Department of Neurology and Neurophysiology, Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland.

Introduction: Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) leads to functional impairment by compression of the spinal cord and nerve roots. In DCM, the dynamics of cerebrospinal fluid pressure (CSFP) and intraspinal pressure (ISP), as well as spinal cord perfusion pressure (SCPP) remain not investigated yet. Recent technical advances have enabled investigation of these parameters in acute spinal cord injury (SCI). Read More

Eur Spine J 2021 Apr 10. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany.

Purpose: The purpose of our meta-analyses is to find the most appropriate surgical technique treating lumbar degenerative disc disease (DDD). Spinal fusion is the conventional treatment for lumbar DDD. Total disc replacement (TDR) has been developed to avoid negative effects of fusions by preserving functionality. Read More

J Spine Surg 2021 Mar;7(1):114-117

Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center, Amiens, France.

Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) is performed for the surgical management of lumbar degenerative disc disease with excellent results, particularly for discogenic low back pain. Commonly reported complications associated with this approach include vessel injury, retrograde ejaculation, and ureteral and viscus organ injury. The development of a varicocele after ALIF has not been previously described in the literature. Read More

J Spine Surg 2021 Mar;7(1):83-99

Section of Neurosurgery, Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, Vero Beach, FL, USA.

Minimally invasive techniques have become part of the spine surgeons' armamentarium and are currently utilized to treat many conditions involving the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral spine. Surgical treatment of severe degenerative conditions such as multilevel spinal stenosis, tandem stenosis, combination of stenosis or disk herniation and spondylolisthesis at adjacent spinal levels, as well as extensive infections or hematomas, may require a multilevel tailored approach with all the challenges that such surgical planning entails. Although the use of minimally invasive tubular decompressive procedures has gained widespread popularity in the recent years, the adoption of such techniques during multilevel spine surgery can be at times challenging. Read More

J Spine Surg 2021 Mar;7(1):19-25

Norton Leatherman Spine Center, Louisville, KY, USA.

Background: With the current opioid crisis, as many as 38% of patients are still on opioids one year after elective spine surgery. Identifying drivers of in-hospital opioid consumption may decrease subsequent opioid dependence. We aimed to identify the drivers of in-hospital opioid consumption in patients undergoing 1-2-level instrumented lumbar fusions. Read More

J Spine Surg 2021 Mar;7(1):8-18

Department of Neurosurgery, Henry Ford Health System, 2799 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit, MI, USA.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the changes to spinopelvic sagittal alignment following minimally invasive (MIS) lumbar interbody fusion, and the influence of such changes on postoperative discharge disposition.

Methods: The Michigan Spine Surgery Improvement Collaborative was queried for all patients who underwent transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF)or lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) procedures for degenerative spine disease. Several spinopelvic sagittal alignment parameters were measured, including sagittal vertical axis (SVA), lumbar lordosis, pelvic tilt, pelvic incidence, and pelvic incidence-lumbar lordosis mismatch. Read More

Cureus 2021 Mar 4;13(3):e13701. Epub 2021 Mar 4.

Orthopedics and Traumatology, General Hospital of Patras "Agios Andreas", Patras, GRC.

Extra lateral interbody fusion (XLIF) has been established in recent years as an effective approach to address degenerative lumbar disc disease (DLDD). Although neurological and vascular complications during XLIF have been reported, to our knowledge, a combination of simultaneous vascular and neurovascular complication during XLIF has not been reported to date. A 72-year-old female patient was admitted to our orthopaedic department because of back pain associated with severe neuropathic radicular pain to her both lower extremities, incomplete paraplegia and low back fistula with serous secretion for several weeks. Read More

Global Spine J 2021 Apr 9:21925682211009182. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort.

Objectives: Allocating cost is challenging with traditional hospital accounting. Time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) is an efficient method to accurately assign cost. Read More

Medicine (Baltimore) 2021 Apr;100(14):e24775

Department of Neurosurgery, The fifth affiliated hospital of Nanchang University (Fu Zhou first people's hospital of Jiangxi province), Fuzhou, Jiangxi, PR China.

Background: The new emerging application of decompression combined with fusion comes with a concern of cost performance, however, it is a lack of big data support. We aimed to evaluate the necessity or not of the addition of fusion for decompression in patients with lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis.

Methods: Potential studies were selected from PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, and gray relevant studies were manually searched. Read More

Spine J 2021 Apr 5. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.

Background Context: Spine patients have a higher rate of depression then the general population which may be caused in part by levels of pain and disability from their spinal disease.

Purpose: Determination whether improvements in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) resulting from successful spine surgery leads to improvements in mental health.

Study Design/setting: The Canadian Spine Outcome Research Network (CSORN) prospective surgical outcome registry. Read More

Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob 2021 Apr 8;20(1):22. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Division of Internal Medicine, Department of Rheumatology, University Medical Centre Maribor, Ljubljanska ulica 5, 2000, Maribor, Slovenia.

Background: Non-Helicobacter pylori species (NHPS) are newly emerging bacteria that naturally inhabit birds and mammals apart from humans and rarely cause diseases in humans. In recent years, a rise in the number of cases associated with NHPS infections in humans has been observed. Among them, infections with Helicobacter (H. Read More

JBJS Case Connect 2021 04 7;11(2). Epub 2021 Apr 7.

Department of Radiodiagnosis, Maulana Azad Medical College and Associated Lok Nayak Hospital, New Delhi, India.

Case: Multilevel lumbar spondylolistheses have been reported, but only secondary to degenerative processes. We describe a case where grade 4 anterolisthesis occurred (L3,4,5 over S1) because of multiple level traumatic pedicle avulsion rather than facetal/pars interarticularis/posterior ligamentous complex disruption in a 42-year-old man who presented with paraparesis after a fall from height. Decompression was performed at the L5 level, and pedicle screw fixation was performed at L3, L5, and S1 levels. Read More

Biomed Res Int 2021 20;2021:6693446. Epub 2021 Mar 20.

Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, 400016 Chongqing, China.

Objective: To compare the efficacy of oblique lateral interbody fusion (OLIF) and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) in single-level degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DLS).

Methods: A retrospective analysis of patients who underwent single-level DLS surgery in our department from 2015 to 2018 was performed. According to the surgical method, the enrolled patients were divided into two groups, namely, the OLIF group who underwent OLIF combined with percutaneous pedicle screw fixation (PPSF) and the TLIF group. Read More

BMC Musculoskelet Disord 2021 Apr 6;22(1):334. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Department of Spine, Wangjing Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.

Background: The purpose of this study was to establish a novel rat model for ligamentum flavum (LF) hypertrophy using increased motion of lumbar and to elucidate the etiology of (LFH).

Methods: A total number of 30 male rats were used. The increased motion of lumbar was induced by surgical resection of L5/6 posterior elements (n = 15). Read More

J Neurosurg Spine 2021 Apr 6:1-7. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

2Department of Neurosurgery, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland; and.

Objective: In a healthcare landscape in which costs increasingly matter, the authors sought to distinguish among the clinical and nonclinical drivers of patient length of stay (LOS) in the hospital following elective lumbar laminectomy-a common spinal surgery that may be reimbursed using bundled payments-and to understand their relationships with patient outcomes and costs.

Methods: Patients ≥ 18 years of age undergoing laminectomy surgery for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis within the Cleveland Clinic health system between March 1, 2016, and February 1, 2019, were included in this analysis. Generalized linear modeling was used to assess the relationships between the day of surgery, patient discharge disposition, and hospital LOS, while adjusting for underlying patient health risks and other nonclinical factors, including the hospital surgery site and health insurance. Read More

Pain Med 2021 Apr 5. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Department or Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, 7123, Public Health, 130 DeSoto Street, Pittsburgh, PA.

Objective: While Provocation Lumbar Discography has been used to identify discs responsible for low back pain, the biomechanical effects of disc injection have received little attention. The purpose of this study was to assess the motion of the Functional Spinal Unit including the Endplate and Facet/Pedicle region during disc injection including comparison between normal and degenerative discs.

Subjects: 91 consecutive patients referred for Discography with chronic low back pain. Read More

J Neurol Surg A Cent Eur Neurosurg 2021 Apr 1. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Radiology Department, Lublin Cancer Hospital of Saint John from Dukla, Lublin, Poland.

Background:  A perineural (Tarlov) cyst is a fluid-filled lesion occurring between the perineurium and the endoneurium of spinal nerve roots. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence and morphology of perineural cysts, detected incidentally in patients with symptomatic degenerative disk disease.

Materials/methods:  The study was based on the retrospective data gathered during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations. Read More

Neurospine 2021 Mar 31;18(1):106-108. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Neurological Surgery, Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA.

J Biomech 2021 Mar 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

Aging Dis 2021 Apr 1;12(2):625-645. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

1Complex Structure of Surgical Sciences and Technologies, IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy.

Frailty is a condition characterized by a high vulnerability to low-power stressor. Frailty increases with age and is associated with higher complications and mortality. Several indexes have been used to quantify frailty. Read More

Front Pharmacol 2021 18;12:641435. Epub 2021 Mar 18.

Xianyang Central Hospital of Shaanxi Province, Xianyang, China.

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a spinal degenerative disease, complicated with nerve injury. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a kind of glycerophospholipid molecule is elevated in the initial stages of neural injury. This research aimed to investigate the patho-mechanism of nerve injury caused by LPA in LSS patients. Read More

Arch Orthop Trauma Surg 2021 Apr 3. Epub 2021 Apr 3.

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Karatsu Red Cross Hospital, 2430 Watada, Karatsu, Saga, 847-8588, Japan.

Introduction: The success rate of decompression surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) has been reported to vary from 60 to 80%. The purpose of this study was to analyze the predictors for clinical outcomes after tubular surgery for endoscopic decompression (microendoscopic decompression) for LSS.

Materials And Methods: A total of 100 patients with degenerative LSS (M/F: 61/39, Age: mean 69. 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