Lumbar spine fracture in a 34,100-year-old skeleton: the oldest known prehistoric spine fracture.

WE EXAMINED SPECIAL pathological changes of the lumbar spine from skeleton remains referred to as "Stetten 1," one of the earliest specimens of modern humans dating from the Early Stone Age (Upper Paleolithic). The skeleton was discovered during archaeological excavations under Riek in 1931 in the Vogelherd Cave near Stetten, close to the Lone Valley of southwestern Germany. The archaeological context is the so-called Aurignacian period (40,000-30,000 yr ago), representing the earliest cultural step of modern humans in Europe.

Paleopathological features of the cervical spine in the early middle ages: natural history of degenerative diseases.

Objective: Trauma and degenerative joint disease are the most common pathological conditions observed in archaeological skeletal remains. We describe the prevalence of different types of cervical bone diseases observed in the early Middle Ages (6th to 8th centuries AD).

Methods: Human skeletons were excavated from Germanic row graves in southwestern Germany.

Intraoperative management of cystic meningiomas.

Cystic meningiomas are uncommon tumors that are easily confused with metastatic or glial tumors with cystic components. We report on our experience of intraoperative findings and management of peritumoral cyst wall and cyst fluid in cystic meningiomas. We reviewed all the meningiomas operated on at our department in a 3 1/2-year period (January 1998 to June 2001).