BACKGROUND Epidural steroid injection has been frequently performed to treat chronic pain due to lumbosacral disc herniation (L-HIVD). However, a considerable number of patients do not achieve pain relief using this method because perineural or epidural adhesions prevent the spread of injectate into the epidural space. Percutaneous adhesiolysis (PA) is thought to be a useful method because it c...

STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional, case-control study. PURPOSE To investigate associations between physical fitness measures and disabilities related to back pain and quality of life (QOL) by the presence of symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) in elderly Korean women. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE LSS leads to decreased functioning and reduced QOL. However, correlations among physical fitness, d...

Millions of dollars are wagered on the outcome of one day international (ODI) cricket matches, with a large percentage of bets occurring after the game has commenced. Using match information gathered from all 2200 ODI matches played prior to January 2005, a range of variables that could independently explain statistically significant proportions of variation associated with the predicted run to...

BACKGROUND Portable devices are used for unattended recording of patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). The MESAM 4 (MAP; Martinsried, Germany) is a computerized ambulatory polysomnographic system that records four parameters: breathing noise, heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation (SaO(2)), and body position. DESIGN AND METHOD We evaluated the reliability of the oxy...

The aim of the article is to investigate the efficacy of ultrasound (US)-guided Caudal Epidural Steroid Injection (CESI) compared with fluoroscopy (FL)-guided CESI in patients with unilateral lower lumbar radicular pain. This case-controlled, retrospective, comparative study was done at the university hospital. A total of 110 patients treated with US- or FL-guided CESI were administered a mixtu...

BACKGROUND Poorer postoperative outcome is suggested after repairing surgery in diabetic patients with lumbar spinal stenosis in comparison with nondiabetic patients. The present study aimed to compare the clinical outcome of surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis and diabetic and nondiabetic patients to highlight the effect of diabetes on prognosis of this surgical procedure. METHODS This prospe...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Many radiological parameters have been reported to correlate with patient's disability including sagittal vertical axis (SVA), pelvic tilt (PT), and pelvic incidence minus lumbar lordosis (PI-LL). European literature reports other parameters such as lumbar lordosis index (LLI) and the global tilt (GT). If most parameters correlate with health-related quality of life scores (H...

China’s increased trade with and investment in Africa has boosted the continent’s growth rate but has also generated considerable controversy. In this paper we investigate China’s outward direct investment (ODI) in Africa using macro and micro data. The aggregate data on China’s ODI in African countries reveal that China’s share of the stock of foreign investment is small, though growing rapidl...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of bridge exercises on the Oswestry disability index (ODI) scores and proprioception among patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). [Subjects and Methods] A total of 38 patients participated in this study. After eight weeks of bridge exercise, the joint position angle of the body trunk was measured and the ODI was used in surv...

background: literature recommends that refractory cases with lumbar disc herniation and appropriate indications are better to be treated surgically, but do all the patients throughout the world consent to the surgery with a same disability and pain threshold? we aim to elucidate the prevalence and severity of disabilities and pain in iranian patients with lumbar disc herniation who have consent...