Degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS) has become increasingly common and is characterized by multilevel disc herniation and lumbar spondylolisthesis, which are difficult to treat. The current study aimed to evaluate the short-term clinical outcomes and value of the combined use of microendoscopic discectomy (MED) and minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MI-TLIF) for t...

BACKGROUND The traditional posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) technique usually involves implantation of two cages through a bilateral approach and bilateral laminectomy, which requires bilateral transpedicle screw fixation. The procedure itself has several negative impacts. Therefore, a modified PLIF procedure that includes insertion of a unilateral cage through the symptomatic side with...

Degenerative spondylolisthesis has long been recognized as a cause of chronic low back pain and sciatica. Extensive anatonmical and embryological studies have not fully explained the cause of this painful condition. The mechanism of pain in degenerative spondylolisthesis has been confirmed by demonstrating the disc lesion pre-operatively by X-rays and MR imaging followed by surgical treatment i...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the surgical technique and outcome of mini-open posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) under circumferential releasing technique. METHODS Fourty patients who underwent mini-open PLIF using the percutaneous screw fixation system for Meyerding Grade II spondylolisthesis or more were retrospectively studied. After complete circumferential rel...

The Frame Problem (FP) is a puzzle in philosophy of mind and epistemology, articulated by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as follows: “How do we account for our apparent ability to make decisions on the basis only of what is relevant to an ongoing situation without having explicitly to consider all that is not relevant?” In this work, we focus on the causal variant of the FP, the Causal...

Posterolateral fusion has long been considered the "gold standard" technique for surgical treatment of adult spondylolisthesis. Superior results have subsequently been reported with interbody fusion with cages and posterior instrumentation. The goal of this prospective study was to compare the two techniques regarding their clinical outcomes and fusion rates. Fifty-two patients with isthmic spo...

The ideal surgical treatment of spondylolisthesis still remains controversial. There are several methods of treatment and posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) is one of them. We analyze the results of spondylolisthesis treated by PLIF in term of radiological union, improvement of pre-operative symptoms like back pain, radiating pain and return to normal activities including that of employme...

Posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF), as recommended with bilateral lumbar interbody cages and pedicle screw fixation, has increased the successful fusion rate to nearly 100%. Presently, a unilateral approach to the disc space with a variant of PLIF, the trans-foraminal interbody fusion is often used. There are few clinical studies of unilateral interbody fusion. The clinical and fusion res...

We present new vibrational (infrared) planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) imaging techniques for CO(2) that use a simple, inexpensive, high-pulse-energy transversely excited atmospheric CO(2) laser to saturate a CO(2) absorption transition at 10.6 mum. Strong excitation by use of a CO(2) laser provides increased signal levels at flame temperatures and simplifies image interpretation. Becau...