Publications by authors named "Brandon K Couch"
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how total hip arthroplasty (THA) affects lower back movement during walking in patients with hip-spine syndrome, aiming to understand improvements in back pain.
- Thirteen patients with severe hip osteoarthritis were analyzed before and six months after THA, using various questionnaires and measurements of spinal and pelvic orientation during walking.
- Results indicated significant improvements in hip and back pain scores after THA, but no changes in static spinal positioning; however, there were notable changes in lumbar spine movement that may contribute to reduced pain.
Purpose: Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is the most common reason for spinal surgery in patients over the age of 65, and there are few effective non-surgical treatments. Therefore, the development of novel treatment or preventative modalities to decrease overall cost and morbidity associated with LSS is an urgent matter. The cause of LSS is multifactorial; however, a significant contributor is ligamentum flavum hypertrophy (LFH) which causes mechanical compression of the cauda equina or nerve roots.
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- The study involved a retrospective analysis of patients with spine fractures due to ankylosing conditions, specifically ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH).
- It aimed to explore differences in treatment methods and mortality rates between these two groups over a nine-year period.
- Findings indicated that AS patients experienced more severe fractures and required surgery more often than DISH patients, yet there was no significant difference in 1-year mortality rates between the two groups.
Article Synopsis
- A prospective cohort study aimed to explore how various patient factors influence the movement of adjacent spinal segments after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) using advanced biplane radiography.
- Previous research has linked patient characteristics to adjacent segment disease (ASD), but this study uniquely examined how these factors relate to the spinal mechanics involved in ASD development.
- Results indicated that specific preoperative conditions like disc height and bulging, alongside lifestyle factors such as smoking and medication use, are significant predictors of changes in adjacent segment motion post-surgery.
Background: Previous animal models of intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) rely on open surgical approaches, which confound the degenerative response and pain behaviors due to injury to surrounding tissues during the surgical approach. To overcome these challenges, we developed a minimally invasive percutaneous puncture procedure to induce IDD in a rat model.
Methods: Ten Fischer 344 male rats underwent percutaneous annular puncture of lumbar intervertebral discs (IVDs) at L2-3, L3-4, and L4-5.
Article Synopsis
- The study is a retrospective cohort analysis aimed at assessing how the level of caudal instrumentation affects revision rates after posterior cervical laminectomy and fusion.
- It involved analyzing a database of 204 patients over a minimum follow-up of one year, dividing them into two groups based on where their fusion ended—cervical (C7) or thoracic (T1/T2).
- Findings indicated that the overall revision rate was similar between both groups (7.3% for cervical and 10.4% for thoracic), and no independent risk factors for revision surgery were identified, suggesting that fusion constructs can safely end at the cervical spine without increasing revision risk.
Background: Peripheral nerve and infraclavicular brachial plexus injury following proximal humerus fractures are commonplace, but diagnosing a concomitant nerve injury in the acute setting is challenging. Fracture displacement has been identified as a qualitative risk factor for nerve injury, and additional attention should be paid to the neurologic exams of patients with proximal humerus fractures with significant medial shaft displacement. However, a quantitative relationship between the risk of nerve injury and medialization of the humeral shaft has not been shown, and additional risk factors for this complication have not been assessed.
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- - The study aimed to evaluate how the type of graft used during anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) affects residual motion and patient-reported outcomes, particularly looking at the influence of smoking.
- - Using dynamic imaging, researchers assessed 48 participants one year post-surgery, finding that those with allograft showed a trend toward more residual motion compared to autograft, although the difference wasn't statistically significant.
- - There were no notable differences in patient-reported outcomes based on graft type or smoking status, but smokers with allograft tended to report worse outcomes compared to other groups.
Article Synopsis
- - The study was a retrospective cohort analysis aimed at understanding how bariatric surgery affects outcomes after elective lumbar fusion surgery, primarily looking at the rates of surgical site infections and other complications.
- - Researchers reviewed data from patients treated at a large medical center between 2012 and 2018, comparing those with prior bariatric surgery to a control group of patients without such surgery.
- - Results showed that patients who had bariatric surgery experienced higher rates of surgical site infections requiring additional surgery, more issues with adjacent segments, and increased chronic pain, while other complications like prolonged wound drainage were similar between the two groups.
Significance: Financial relationships between industry and physicians are a key aspect for the advancement of surgical practice and training, but these relationships also result in a conflict of interest with respect to research. Financial payments to physicians are public within the United States in the Open Payments Database, but the rate of accurate financial disclosure of payments has not previously been studied in trauma surgery publications.
Objective: To determine the rate of accurate financial disclosure in major surgical trauma journals compared with the Open Payments Database.
Article Synopsis
- In vitro biomechanical studies of the spine help in understanding normal biomechanics, injury mechanisms, and the impact of surgical interventions on spine mechanics.
- This study aimed to compare in vitro loading tests with actual in vivo neck movements to see how well lab results reflect real-life spine behavior.
- Findings showed that in vitro testing often does not accurately mimic in vivo spine mechanics, particularly regarding the center of rotation and disc height, which is important for developing effective spinal devices like cervical disc replacements.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how rabbit annulus fibrosus (AF) cells produce neuropeptide Y (NPY) when subjected to mechanical and inflammatory stress, with the aim of understanding its role in intervertebral disc health.
- Researchers exposed lumbar AF cells from young rabbits to different levels of tensile stress and inflammatory markers, finding that inflammatory conditions significantly increased NPY expression, while mechanical strain alone had minimal effect.
- The presence of NPY receptor-type 1 (NPY-1R) in rabbit AF cells was confirmed, suggesting that increased NPY production in response to stress could be linked to intervertebral disc degeneration and associated low back pain.