Ventral spondylodesis by autologous bone grafting in cases of degenerative disease of the cervical spine bears the disadvantage of the complication of pain at the iliac crest. The question is if these problems can be avoided by implanting intervertebral disc spacers. Between September 1997 and December 2000, we operated on 145 patients suffering from degenerative diseases, including osteochondr...

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective study. PURPOSE To analyze the incidence and prevalence of clinical adjacent segment pathology (CASP) following anterior decompression and fusion with cage and plate augmentation for degenerative cervical diseases. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE No long-term data on the use of cage and plate augmentation have been reported. METHODS The study population consisted of 231 p...

Lower back pain is a common concern, and 40% of all cases involve the degeneration of the intervertebral disc (IVD). However, the excessive apoptosis of disc cells plays an important role in IVD degeneration, particularly in the nucleus pulposus (NP). Thus, anti-apoptotic gene therapy to attenuate or reverse the degenerative process within the NP is being developed. Survivin is a unique inhibit...

Intervertebral disc degenerative diseases have become a serious social health problem. However, there is no clinical treatment effectively retarding the progression of intervertebral disc degeneration. Crocin, which is extracted from saffron, has been proved to exert anti-inflammatory and anti-catabolic effects on intervertebral disc in vitro and ex vivo. In the present study, effects of crocin...

The present study aimed to evaluate the early effects of interspinous spacers on lumbar degenerative disease. The clinical outcomes of 23 patients with lumbar degenerative disease, treated using interspinous spacer implantation alone or combined with posterior lumbar fusion, were retrospectively studied and assessed with a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). Pre...

STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional imaging study. PURPOSE The objective was to assess the degree of degeneration and the associated factors through imaging studies of the lesion segment and the adjacent superior and inferior segments of isthmic and degenerative spondylolisthesis. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE Few articles existed for degeneration and related factors in isthmic and degenerative spondyl...

Low back pain is a major cause of disability especially for people between 20 and 50 years of age. As a costly healthcare problem, it imposes a serious socio-economic burden. Current surgical therapies fail to replace the normal disc in facilitating spinal movements and absorbing load. The focus of regenerative medicine is on identifying biomarkers and signalling pathways to improve our underst...

Degenerative disc disease and disc bulge in the lumbar spine are common sources of lower back pain. Little is known regarding disc bulge migration and lumbar segmental mobility as the lumbar spine moves from flexion to extension. In this study, 329 symptomatic (low back pain with or without neurological symptoms) patients with an average age of 43.5 years with varying degrees of disc degenerati...

© 2005 Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington. All Rights Reserved. Back to Top Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington Clinical Review Criteria Artificial Spinal Discs for Single-Level Lumbar or Cervical Disc Disease • BryanTM • CharitéTM • PrestigeTM Artificial Discs • ProDisc-CTM • ProDisc-LTM • Two-level cervical artificial disc replacement for the treatment of cervical degenerativ...