OBJECTIVE There is widespread belief among doctors that posterior midline tenderness is virtually a prerequisite for spinal fracture in alert, sober patients without any painful distracting injury or neurological deficit. This paper examines and challenges this belief. METHODS AND RESULTS We present three patients in whom significant thoracic and lumbar vertebral fractures were missed, or wer...

Data concerning the safety of sacroplasty in terms of cement leakage is scarce. Frequency, distribution patterns and clinical consequences of cement leakage were assessed in 33 patients (28 female, mean age: 74 +/- 10 yrs; bilateral SIF: n = 30, 63 sacroplasties) treated with sacroplasty between 06/2003 and 11/2010 in a retrospective study using patients' records, operative notes and postoperat...

objective: in this paper, finite element model of the l4 vertebra subjected to combination of compression and flexion loading in isotropic and anisotropic cases is investigated. methods: in both cases, the vertebra is considered homogeneous. also, the body of vertebra is divided to cancellous and cortical sections in anisotropic model, but the process is assumed isotropic such as isotropic mode...

 It has been reported that fractures are more common in epileptic patients relative to the general population. Seizures by repeated muscular contractions can increase fracture risk throughout the skeleton, but the reported papers about non traumatic vertebral fractures following a single episode of seizure are rare and mostly located in thoracic spine with only one or two vertebral fr...

The authors described a lumbar spine fracture that is characterized on anteroposterior x-ray views by separation of the pedicular shadows. It is almost invariably associated with posterior interlaminar herniation of the cauda equina through a dorsal dural split, and anterolateral entrapment or amputation of the nerve root. The fracture is unstable and requires internal fixation and fusion at th...

There have been few clinical studies in the area of cervical spine that focused on surgery for treating degenerative lumbar disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). High rates of wound complications and instrumentation failure have been reported more for RA than for non-RA patients, although clinical outcomes are similar between the two groups. Lumbar canal stenosis in RA is caused n...

Posterior lumbar vertebral apophyseal ring fractures are described in three adolescents presenting with severe low back pain, spinal tenderness and lower limb neurological deficit. Magnetic resonance imaging showed severe L4/5 posterior disc protrusion in all three patients. The actual fracture fragment was visualized with difficulty on MRI alone. The diagnosis of apophyseal ring fracture was m...

INTRODUCTION Fracture-dislocation of the thoracic or lumbar spine often results in severe neurologic deficits if dislocation is significant. However, cases of fracture-dislocation of the thoracic or lumbar spine without neurologic deficits are rarely reported in the literature, and the choice of the treatment has been controversial. CASE REPORT Two female patients, aged 27 and 35 years, were ...