BACKGROUND Disc protrusion has been proposed to be a possible cause of both pain and stenosis in the lower spine. No previous study has described the amount of disc occlusion of the spinal canal and intervertebral foramen that occurs under different loading conditions. The objective of this study was to quantitatively assess the percent occlusion of the spinal canal and intervertebral foramen b...

OBJECTIVE To assess role of some inflammatory mediators in patients with primary and recurrent lumbar disc herniation. Expression of IL-6, transforming growth factor (TGF)-1, insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, and Bcl-2-associated X protein (BAX) have been shown to be more intense in the primary group than the recurrent goup, but this mediators may be important aspects prognostic. METHODS 19...

STUDY DESIGN An autograft of costal cartilage was transplanted into the rat intervertebral space in the proximal tail following 2 weeks of simulated degeneration by chondroitinase ABC (CABC). OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate costal cartilage transplantation into a degenerated disc as a possible therapy. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Reversal of degenerative disc dehydration...

Recently, percutaneous epidural neuroplasty has become widely used to treat radicular pain caused by spinal stenosis or a herniated intervertebral disc. A 19-year-old female patient suffering from left radicular pain caused by an L4-L5 intervertebral disc herniation underwent percutaneous epidural neuroplasty of the left L5 nerve root using a Racz catheter. After the procedure, the patient comp...

Hydrogel injection has been recently proposed as a novel therapy for disc degenerative diseases, with the potential to restore the spine motion and the intervertebral disc height. However, it remains unknown whether the new technique could also maintain the shock absorbing property of the treated intervertebral disc. In this study, 18 porcine lumbar bone-disc-bone specimens were collected and r...

OBJECTIVE In the present work we studied the expression of nerve growth associated protein (GAP-43) in a rat model of intervertebral disc degeneration. METHODS 16 healthy adult SD rats, male or female, with an average weight 220g were selected. FluoroGold was injected in L5-L6 disc as the tracer. After 7 days, Freund's adjuvant was then injected to build model of intervertebral disc degenerat...

Lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration is induced by multiple factors, but few studies have examined the effects of aquaporins on this process. We compared the expression levels of aquaporins 1 and 3 in normal and degenerative lumbar intervertebral discs. Fifteen normal and 15 degenerative lumbar intervertebral disc tissues were excised from lumbar burst fracture patients during orthopedic ope...