Effectiveness of an Annular Closure Device to Prevent Recurrent Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Secondary Analysis With 5 Years of Follow-up.

Importance: Patients with large annular defects following lumbar microdiscectomy for disc herniation are at increased risk for symptomatic recurrence and reoperation.

Objective: To determine whether a bone-anchored annular closure device in addition to lumbar microdiscectomy resulted in lower reherniation and reoperation rates vs lumbar microdiscectomy alone.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This secondary analysis of a multicenter randomized clinical trial reports 5-year follow-up for enrolled patients between December 2010 and October 2014 at 21 clinical sites.

High accuracy of external ventricular drainage placement using anatomical landmarks.

Background: The conventional approach for external ventricular drainage (EVD) application is the freehand method. Technical devices can improve the accuracy of placement, but they have not yet replaced anatomical landmarks owing to the cost and effort that they entail. There is disagreement as to whether freehand EVD application is safe enough to be accepted as a standard technique.

Focusing on foot drop: Results from a patient survey and clinical examination.

Background: Epidemiological data concerning the symptom 'foot drop' are scarce in the literature. However, everyday practice shows that this symptom is frequent, and that patients who suffer from it are significantly disabled.

Methods: A special 'foot-drop consulting hour' to examine and advise people with foot drop was founded.

Use of processed bovine pericard in peripheral nerve surgery.

Objective: Nerve damage often means a loss of the epi- and perineural sheaths, an adherence to the surrounding tissue and a loss of smooth movements. This leads to pain and functional deficits. Creating a gliding apparatus for damaged nerves is a possibility to restore physiological function and interrupt the vicious circle of pain.

Posterolateral myelotomy for intramedullary spinal cord tumors: the other way to do it?

Background And Purpose: To evaluate posterolateral myelotomy (PLM) as a surgical method for all cases of intramedullary spinal cord tumors (IMSCT) by assessing the surgical and functional outcomes of patients treated in our clinic.

Materials And Methods: Patients with IMSCT who underwent surgery using PLM from 2013 to 2018 were reviewed retrospectively. Objective and quantitative assessment of the preoperative, postoperative, and follow-up neurological status was performed by using the modified McCormick functional schema and sensory pain scale.