The aim of this study was to reassess the rate of neurological, psoas-related, and abdominal complications associated with L4-L5 lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) undertaken using a standardized preoperative assessment and surgical technique. This was a multicentre retrospective study involving consecutively enrolled patients who underwent L4-L5 LLIF by seven surgeons at seven institutions in three countries over a five-year period. The demographic details of the patients and the details of the surgery, reoperations and complications, including femoral and non-femoral neuropraxia, thigh pain, weakness of hip flexion, and abdominal complications, were analyzed. Neurological and psoas-related complications attributed to LLIF or posterior instrumentation and persistent symptoms were recorded at one year postoperatively.Aims
Methods
This review provides a concise outline of the advances made in the care of patients and to the quality of life after a traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) over the last century. Despite these improvements reversal of the neurological injury is not yet possible. Instead, current treatment is limited to providing symptomatic relief, avoiding secondary insults and preventing additional sequelae. However, with an ever-advancing technology and deeper understanding of the damaged spinal cord, this appears increasingly conceivable. A brief synopsis of the most prominent challenges facing both clinicians and research scientists in developing functional treatments for a progressively complex injury are presented. Moreover, the multiple mechanisms by which damage propagates many months after the original injury requires a multifaceted approach to ameliorate the human spinal cord. We discuss potential methods to protect the spinal cord from damage, and to manipulate the inherent inhibition of the spinal cord to regeneration and repair. Although acute and chronic SCI share common final pathways resulting in cell death and neurological deficits, the underlying putative mechanisms of chronic SCI and the treatments are not covered in this review.
Spinal deformity surgery carries the risk of neurological injury. Neurophysiological monitoring allows early identification of intraoperative cord injury which enables early intervention resulting in a better prognosis. Although multimodal monitoring is the ideal, resource constraints make surgeon-directed intraoperative transcranial motor evoked potential (TcMEP) monitoring a useful compromise. Our experience using surgeon-directed TcMEP is presented in terms of viability, safety, and efficacy. We carried out a retrospective review of a single surgeon’s prospectively maintained database of cases in which TcMEP monitoring had been used between 2010 and 2017. The upper limbs were used as the control. A true alert was recorded when there was a 50% or more loss of amplitude from the lower limbs with maintained upper limb signals. Patients with true alerts were identified and their case history analyzed.Aims
Methods
The aim of this study was to evaluate the time course of changes
in parameters of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) such as fractional
anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in patients
with symptomatic lumbar disc herniation. We also investigated the
correlation between the severity of neurological symptoms and these parameters. A total of 13 patients with unilateral radiculopathy due to herniation
of a lumbar disc were investigated with DTI on a 1.5T MR scanner
and underwent micro discectomy. There were nine men and four women,
with a median age of 55.5 years (19 to 79). The changes in the mean
FA and ADC values and the correlation between these changes and the
severity of the neurological symptoms were investigated before and
at six months after surgery. Aims
Patients and Methods
The belief that an intervertebral disc must degenerate
before it can herniate has clinical and medicolegal significance,
but lacks scientific validity. We hypothesised that tissue changes
in herniated discs differ from those in discs that degenerate without
herniation. Tissues were obtained at surgery from 21 herniated discs
and 11 non-herniated discs of similar degeneration as assessed by
the Pfirrmann grade. Thin sections were graded histologically, and
certain features were quantified using immunofluorescence combined
with confocal microscopy and image analysis. Herniated and degenerated
tissues were compared separately for each tissue type: nucleus, inner
annulus and outer annulus. Herniated tissues showed significantly greater proteoglycan loss
(outer annulus), neovascularisation (annulus), innervation (annulus),
cellularity/inflammation (annulus) and expression of matrix-degrading
enzymes (inner annulus) than degenerated discs. No significant differences
were seen in the nucleus tissue from herniated and degenerated discs.
Degenerative changes start in the nucleus, so it seems unlikely
that advanced degeneration caused herniation in 21 of these 32 discs.
On the contrary, specific changes in the annulus can be interpreted
as the consequences of herniation, when disruption allows local
swelling, proteoglycan loss, and the ingrowth of blood vessels,
nerves and inflammatory cells. In conclusion, it should not be assumed that degenerative changes
always precede disc herniation. Cite this article:
Mesenchymal stem-cell based therapies have been
proposed as novel treatments for intervertebral disc degeneration,
a prevalent and disabling condition associated with back pain. The
development of these treatment strategies, however, has been hindered
by the incomplete understanding of the human nucleus pulposus phenotype
and by an inaccurate interpretation and translation of animal to
human research. This review summarises recent work characterising
the nucleus pulposus phenotype in different animal models and in
humans and integrates their findings with the anatomical and physiological
differences between these species. Understanding this phenotype
is paramount to guarantee that implanted cells restore the native
functions of the intervertebral disc. Cite this article:
Discogenic low back pain is a common cause of disability, but its pathogenesis is poorly understood. We collected 19 specimens of lumbar intervertebral discs from 17 patients with discogenic low back pain during posterior lumbar interbody fusion, 12 from physiologically ageing discs and ten from normal control discs. We investigated the histological features and assessed the immunoreactive activity of neurofilament (NF200) and neuropeptides such as substance P (SP) and vasoactive-intestinal peptide (VIP) in the nerve fibres. The distinct histological characteristic of the painful disc was the formation of a zone of vascularised granulation tissue from the nucleus pulposus to the outer part of the annulus fibrosus along the edges of the fissures. SP-, NF- and VIP-immunoreactive nerve fibres in the painful discs were more extensive than in the control discs. Growth of nerves deep into the annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus was observed mainly along the zone of granulation tissue in the painful discs. This suggests that the zone of granulation tissue with extensive innervation along the tears in the posterior part of the painful disc may be responsible for causing the pain of discography and of discogenic low back pain.
