INTRODUCTION Coccydynia refers to pain in the terminal segment of the spinecaused by abnormal sitting and standing posture. Coccydynia is usually managed conservatively, however in nonresponsive patients, ganglion impar block is used as a good alternate modality for pain relief. This article studies the effect of ganglion impar block in coccydynia patients who were not relieved by conservative ...

Here we present the application of neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) to the healthy spinal cord in vivo. NODDI provides maps such as the intra-neurite tissue volume fraction (vin), the orientation dispersion index (ODI) and the isotropic volume fraction (viso), and here we investigate their potential for spinal cord imaging. We scanned five healthy volunteers, four of w...

OBJECT There is considerable debate among spine surgeons regarding whether fusion should be used to augment decompressive surgery in patients with symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis involving Grade I degenerative spondylolisthesis. The authors prospectively evaluated the outcomes of patients treated between 2000 and 2002 at two institutions to determine whether fusion improves functional outcom...

BACKGROUND Data on the clinical outcome after spinal fusion in the elderly patient are rare. To our knowledge there has been no clinical outcome assessment for instrumented spinal fusion in elderly patients comparing posterolateral fusion with intervertebral fusion. Aim of the current study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of elderly patients who underwent a spinal fusion procedure for dege...

Background: Obesity, abdominal surgery, and intrathecal opioids are all factors associated with a risk for respiratory compromise. The aim of this explorative trial was to study the apnoea/hypopnea index 1st postoperative night in obese mothers having had caesarean section (CS) in spinal anaesthesia with a combination of bupivacaine/morphine and fentanyl. Methods: Consecutive obese (BMI >30 kg/...

STUDY DESIGN A case-control study. PURPOSE To investigate the effectiveness of transforaminal percutaneous endoscopic discectomy (TPED) in Parkinson's disease (PD). OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE Patients with PD frequently suffer from radiculopathy and low back pain. Additionally, they demonstrate higher complication rates after open spine surgery. However, the clinical outcome of minimally invasi...

STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional psychometric testing in a sample of patients with low back pain (LBP). OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine the construct, convergent, and discriminative validity of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) in patients with LBP. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA The BPI was originally developed to assess cancer pain. Currently, it is commonly used to measure pain inten...

BACKGROUND Chronic pain causes a significant burden to the US health care system, is difficult to treat, and remains a significant contributor to increased opioid use in the United States. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been FDA approved for the treatment of chronic pain. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the hypothesis that SCS reduces opioid use, and alone maintains clinical outcome measures of pain...

STUDY DESIGN Subgroup analyses according to treatment received. OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether baseline radiographic findings predicted outcomes in patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA The spine patient outcomes research trial combined randomized and observational DS cohorts. METHODS The Meyerding listhesis grade was determined on the neutral radiograph ...

OBJECTIVE To compare equivalent doses of a nonparticulate (dexamethasone) with a particulate (betamethasone) corticosteroid in lumbar transforaminal epidural steroid injections (TFESIs) in terms of pain, function, and complications. DESIGN Fifty-six patients presenting with debilitating radicular pain were randomized in a double-blind controlled trial to receive a lumbar transforaminal inject...