The lumbar epidural venograms of 45 consecutive patients with prior normal or equivocal myelographic examinations were reviewed . Each venographic injection was performed using transfemoral double-catheter technique, abdominal compression , Valsalva maneuver, and serial filming for 12 sec. There was a 30% incidence of false " occlusions" of epidural veins suggestive of compression by a herniate...

A 59-year-old woman was seen 3 months after laminectomy at L3-L5 and diskectomy at L3-L4 for central herniated disk. She had occipital headaches exacerbated by coughing and low back pain radiating to the right leg. On examination a small , nontender, fluctuant mass was noted lateral to the laminectomy incision. Sonography showed a multilocular cyst at the L3 level with a large, deeper component...

The usefulness of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) images in the evaluation of spinal disorders below the craniocervical junction was studied. Six normal subjects and 41 patients with various spinal abnormalities were examined. NMR proved capable of demonstrating important normal and pathologic anatomic structures; it was useful in the evaluation of syringohydromyelia and cystic spinal cord tum...

We begin with a view defended elsewhere that pain is a representation of tissue damage that is dependent on what one is doing. We extend this view by exploring a relation between pain and action inspired by Alva Noë’s theory of perception. We consider whether sensorimotor knowledge related to tissue damage plays a role in pain experience. We explore this possibility by considering various kinds...

Care of the patient with diabetes mellitus presents numerous challenges to the anesthesia practitioner. There is no perfect way to care for these patients nor are any 2 patients with diabetes exactly alike. With the advent of subcutaneous insulin pumps, the anesthesia practitioner has another tool to assist him or her in giving high quality care. This case study describes the anesthesia care pr...

Limited flip angle (LFA), gradient echo imaging was performed in 130 patients for evaluation of cervical radicular complaints. The LFA study was compared with myelography, CT myelography, and surgical results. Image quality was considered good or excellent for 128 patients. The use of a 10 degrees flip angle with a TR of 75 msec and TE of 12.3 msec consistently provided good contrast and signal...

Common causes of low back pain in children, such as muscle strain, herniated disk, spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis and Scheuermann’s kyphosis, are frequently diagnosed and given proper treatment. Due to the low incidence, a delay in diagnosis of less common causes of low back pain such as systemic disease (storage disease), neoplastic disease or infection (discitis) may result in long term dis...

Intraspinal synovial or ganglion cysts are uncommon lesions associated with degenerative lumbosacral spine disease. CT usually reveals cystic lesions adjacent to a facet joint, and they may show calcification. MR imaging of four surgically confirmed cases of intraspinal synovial cysts revealed subtle signal changes compared with CSF. Short TR/TE images showed the lesions to be slightly hyperint...

INTRODUCTION Correlation between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical features in cauda equina syndrome (CES) is unknown; nor is known whether there are differences in MRI spinal canal size between lumbar herniated disc patients with CES versus lumbar herniated discs patients without CES, operated for sciatica. The aims of this study are 1) evaluating the association of MRI features wi...

BACKGROUND Another rare cause of lower back pain with radiculopathy is the discal cyst. It is believed to arise from degeneration of a herniated disc, although many other theories of its origin have been proposed. Here, we report a patient with lower back pain/radiculopathy attributed originally to a herniated lumbar disc, which transformed within 6 months into a discal cyst. CASE DESCRIPTION...