BACKGROUND Acute intervertebral disk herniation (IVDH) is a common cause of spinal cord injury in dogs and currently there is no proven medical treatment to counter secondary injury effects. Use of methylprednisolone sodium succinate (MPSS) or polyethylene glycol (PEG) as neuroprotectants is advocated but controversial because neither treatment has been tested in placebo-controlled, randomized,...

Rheumatoid arthritis of the neck is common but neurological complication occurs only in the minority. Nevertheless, this represents one of the few rheumatological emergencies. Surgery is the only definitive treatment, but diagnosis of this complication is often delayed so that candidates for surgery are frail and disabled, thus jeopardising the outcome. The advent of new forms of imaging, espec...

BACKGROUND Laminoplasty is an effective procedure for treating cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). Little information is available regarding the surgical outcomes of expansive open-door laminoplasty (EOLP) when securing with titanium miniplates without bone grafting. This study is aimed to elucidate the efficacy of and problems associated with EOLP secured with titanium miniplates without bo...

BACKGROUND The selection, neurodiagnostic evaluation, and surgical management of patients with cervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) remain controversial. Whether for prophylaxis or treatment, the decision to perform anterior vs. posterior vs. circumferential cervical OPLL surgery is complex. MR AND CT DOCUMENTATION OF OPLL Together, MR and CT cervical studies be...

Kaur J, Virk JS. BMJ Case Rep 2017. doi:10.1136/bcr-2017-222512 Description Anterior cervical osteophytes are commonly associated with degenerative spine in elderly people. The complications that arise due to the mechanical compression of cervical osteophytes are dysphagia, dysphonia and dyspnoea. The usual causes are osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and diffuse idiopathic spinal hyperost...

What are the risks, benefits, alternatives, and pitfalls for operating on cervical ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL)? To successfully diagnose OPLL, it is important to obtain Magnetic Resonance Images (MR). These studies, particularly the T2 weighted images, provide the best soft-tissue documentation of cord/root compression and intrinsic cord abnormalities (e.g. edema ...

PURPOSE To describe the imaging features, surgical management, and clinical outcome of progressive posttraumatic myelomalacic myelopathy (PPMM), a relatively unrecognized but important cause of progressive myelopathy in patients with previous spinal cord injuries. METHODS The clinical records, imaging studies, and postoperative outcome of 10 patients with PPMM were reviewed. Fifteen preoperat...

The rapid evolution of MR technology and its application to spine imaging are demonstrated in the paper by Enzmann and his coauthors in this issue of the journal [1]. Their use of standard spin-echo and flow-sensitive pulse sequences show that, in certain cases, the radiologist can no longer be satisfied with describing MR findings as if the pathologic processes were static in nature. Instead ,...

In this paper we record a case in which occurred the uncommon association of necrotic softening in the lower half of the spinal cord and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis of perivenous type. The myelo-malacia, in its topographical features, corresponded closely to that reported by Kahle and Schaltenbrand (1955) in their cases of 'myelitis necroticans diffusa' and we shall use the descriptive...

Cervical spondylosis and hypertension are all common diseases, but the relationship between them has never been studied. Patients with cervical spondylosis are often accompanied with vertigo. Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion is an effective method of treatment for cervical spondylosis with cervical vertigo that is unresponsive to conservative therapy. We report 2 patients of cervical spo...