Spinal fusion surgery techniques develop together with technologic advancements. New complications are seen as the result of new techniques and these may be very severe due to spinal cord and vascular structures in the lumbar region. The posterior lumbar interbody fusion cage (PLIFC) was shown to enhance spinal fusion and to prevent pseudoarthrosis due to its basic dynamic characteristics. PLIF...

STUDY DESIGN Lumbar peripheral nerves were examined to determine whether they were responsive to electrical stimulation of the ventral portion of the lumbar disc in anesthetized rats. OBJECTIVES To confirm by electrophysiologic means the neural correspondence between the ventral portion of the lumbar disc and the groin. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Patients with a degenerated lumbar disc occa...

Introduction: Spinal diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is limited by severe motion artefacts and a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Current gradient coils, with low-eddycurrent designs, open the field for the usage of monopolar Stejskal-Tanner sequences [1]. With these schemes, smaller echo times and therefore a higher SNR can be achieved. Only a few studies of lumbar spinal DTI in humans already ...

Single ligature nerve constriction (SLNC) is a newly developed animal model for the study of neuropathic pain. SLNC of the rat sciatic nerve induces pain-related behaviors, as well as changes in the expression of neuropeptide tyrosine and the Y(1) receptor in lumbar dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) and spinal cord. In the present study, we have analyzed the expression of another neuropeptide, galanin...

Dopamine (DA) modulates spinal reflexes, including nociceptive reflexes, in part via the D3 receptor subtype. We have previously shown that mice lacking the functional D3 receptor (D3KO) exhibit decreased paw withdrawal latencies from painful thermal stimuli. Altering the DA system in the CNS, including D1 and D3 receptor systems, reduces the ability of opioids to provide analgesia. Here, we te...

The molecular mechanisms leading to motor neuron death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are unknown; however, several studies have provided evidence of a central role for intrinsic apoptosis. Bcl-2 homology-3 domain (BH3)-only proteins are pro-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family whose enhanced expression acts as a trigger for the intrinsic apoptotic cascade. Here, we compared the relati...

Two cases are described in which inversion of the quadriceps jerk was observed. It is suggested that the finding of an inverted quadriceps jerk is evidence of a spinal cord lesion at 12, 3, 4 segmental level and has for the lumbar cord the same localising value as the inverted supinator jerk for the cervical cord.

ongenital midline cutaneous paraspinal lesions, mostly located in the lumbosacral areas, are widely recognized as markers of occult spinal dysraphism. Diastematomyelia, or a split spinal cord, is an unusual congenital spinal abnormality in which the spinal cord is divided into 2 columns by a fibrous, cartilaginous, or bony septum. In most cases, lesions are located on the lower thoracic and upp...

abstract   objective: to evaluate and review our experience with pediatric spinal injuries and factors affecting outcome, the authors conducted a retrospective clinical study of 43 cases (32 boys, 11 girls) of pediatric spine injuries treated during four years (january 1999 to december 2003).   methods: forty-three children with spinal injuries were studied retrospectively over four years and w...

We used rat rubrospinal neurons as a model to study the soma-dendritic morphology of cord-projection neurons following spinal axonal injury. We examined lumbar-projection neurons following both upper cervical and lower thoracic axotomy to find out whether changes were dependent on the proximity of the lesion to the cell body. Axotomized neurons were marked with retrograde tracer and studied 4 a...