OBJECTIVE To observe the changes in spinal cord pathophysiology, motor function and electrophysiology after spinal cord injuries induced by punctures with different needles, and explore a new means for studying spinal neurotoxicity of local anesthetics. METHODS A total of 144 SD rats were randomly allocated into the sham-operated group (n=36) and 3 spinal cord injury groups (n=36) with the L4...

BACKGROUND Radiofrequency neurotomies are used to help reduce pain caused by structures innervated by the medial branch of the dorsal spinal nerve. The duration of effect may vary proportionally to the length of nerve coagulated. Techniques used to maximize the length of nerve within the radius of maximal heat include making multiple lesions, using larger needles, positioning the exposed needle...

Acute spinal cord injury is one of the most common and complicated diseases among human spinal injury. We aimed to explore the effect of point-through-point acupuncture therapy with elongated needles on acute spinal cord injury in rabbits and its possible mechanism. Adult rabbits were randomly divided into a model group, elongated needle therapy group, and blank group. Immunohistochemical stain...

OBJECTIVES To describe how the anatomy of the cervicothoracic vertebrae predicates the appropriate fluoroscopic views for confirming safe needle placement during the performance of interlaminar cervical epidural injections. METHODS AND RESULTS Illustrations, cadaver models, and radiographic images were correlated and used to illustrate and derive a mathematical model to demonstrate the utilit...

Developments in needle design have been driven largely by the need to reduce the incidence of post-dural puncture headache (PDPH). Reduction in needle size reduced significantly the incidence of PDPH, but technical difficulties leading to failure of spinal anaesthesia are common when needles of 29G or smaller are used. However, development of atraumatic ‘pencil-point’ needles also led to a redu...

BACKGROUND Accurate identification of the epidural space is critical for safe and effective epidural anesthesia or treatment of acute lumbar radicular pain with epidural steroid injections. The loss-of-resistance technique is commonly used, but it is known to be unreliable. Even when it is performed in conjunction with two-dimensional fluoroscopic guidance, determining when the needle tip enter...

During knee arthroscopy, narrowness and tightness maybe encountered in the medial compartment that does not allow sufficient visualization or instrumentation. When this occurs, our team has found it helpful to perform a percutaneous clysis of the deep portion of the medial collateral ligament with a spinal needle. With the knee positioned in 10° to 20° of flexion and a valgus stress is applied....

While ultrasound (US)-guided placement of peripheral nerve blocks is rapidly gaining popularity, expert practitioners agree that two of the most significant barriers to safety and efficacy are keeping the needle tip within the image and unintentional probe movement during the procedure.1 In addition, placing a nerve catheter past the needle tip under direct US observation requires two practitio...

Ultrasound-guided peripheral intravenous (USG-PIV) catheter placement has been described in the emergency medicine literature for more than a decade. Several studies have shown that USG-PIV placement can decrease the number of needle insertion attempts, decrease the number of potentially unnecessary central line placements, and increase patient satisfaction scores. Additional evidence has shown...

We read the article by Zhu et al (1) regarding an alternative approach for lumbar transforaminal epidural steroid injections. We found that their work was similar to our previously reported article, “Fluoroscopically guided transforaminal epidural dry needling for lumbar spinal stenosis using a specially designed needle” (2). In our article, we introduced a minimally invasive interventional tec...