PURPOSE To evaluate treatment outcome of tension band wiring followed by posterior spinal fusion and instrumentation for thoracolumbar flexiondistraction injury (FDI). METHODS 36 men and 12 women aged 21 to 56 (mean, 36) years underwent tension band wiring followed by posterior spinal fusion and instrumentation using pedicular screws for FDI of the thoracolumbar spine. The injured vertebral l...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the prevalence of low back pain among caregivers of patients with spinal cord injury and to investigate the risk factors for LBP among this population. DESIGN A cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS A total of 100 spinal cord injured patients and their caregivers, and 87 healthy control subjects. METHODS Caregivers and control subjects completed a questionnaire about demog...

AIM To describe a modified technique for the treatment of single level, isthmic spondylolisthesis (IS) MATERIAL and METHODS Forty-two patients who underwent posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) with spinolaminar autologous bone graft for the treatment of isthmic spondylolisthesis between May 2007 and November 2011, were retrospectively reviewed. All patients underwent total removal of the...

INTRODUCTION Chronic low back pain is a disabling phenomenon that can cause a severe reduction in quality of life, especially in elderly patients. Surgical treatment is sometimes a big challenge for these elderly patients. Radiofrequency (RF) ablation is an increasingly popular method for treating low back pain caused by facet syndrome. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether RF neuro...

PURPOSE To compare the status of bony union seen on plain radiography versus computed tomography (CT) following tension band repair for refractory spondylolysis. METHODS 14 patients (12 men and 2 women; mean age, 23 years; age range, 16-56 years) with a mean follow-up period of 6.35 years were included. All patients were operated on by one senior surgeon using either a Scott procedure (n=2) o...

BACKGROUND A chronic pain condition may result in altered autonomic nervous system regulation in various patient populations. We evaluated whether autonomic regulation differs between sciatica patients referred to spine surgery and age-matched healthy controls analyzed with heart rate variability techniques (HRV). METHODS HRV of patients (n = 201) and healthy controls (n = 138) were measured ...

RATIONALE The benefits of providing manual therapy and exercise targeting the hips in individuals with mechanical low-back pain (LBP) are not well established. OBJECTIVES The objective in this study is to determine whether a formal prescriptive treatment protocol for the hips improves outcomes in patients with a primary complaint of mechanical LBP. METHODS Eighty-four (84) subjects (50 male...