Metallosis with spinal implant loosening after spinal instrumentation: A case report.

Background: Spinal metallosis is a rare complication following spinal instrumentation whereby an inflammatory response to the metal implants results in the development of granulomatous tissue.

Case Summary: We describe the case of a 78-year-old woman who had recurrence of back pain 5 years after lumbar spine posterior decompression and instrumented fusion. Lumbar spine radiographs showed hardware loosening and magnetic resonance imaging showed adjacent segment disease.

Characteristics and Postoperative Outcomes for High Cervical versus Subaxial Cervical Intradural Extramedullary Tumors: A Multicenter Study.

Background: High cervical intradural extramedullary tumors are uncommon. Their relationship to surrounding neural structures and vertebral arteries makes surgical excision challenging. No previous studies have compared high cervical to subaxial cervical intradural extramedullary spinal tumors to elucidate their unique characteristics and surgical outcomes.

Intracerebral haemorrhage following spine surgery: a word of caution on the use of suction drains.

Intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) is a rare but devastating complication post spinal surgery. We present three cases of post spine surgery ICH that were associated with high drain outputs postoperatively. The first patient underwent C1-C6 instrumented fusion and C4-C6 decompression.

The "Spinal Metastasis Invasiveness Index": A Novel Scoring System to Assess Surgical Invasiveness.

Study Design: Retrospective review.

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a surgical invasiveness index for metastatic spine tumor surgery (MSTS) that can serve as a standardized tool in predicting intraoperative blood loss and surgical duration; for the purpose of ascertaining resource requirements and aiding in patient education.

Summary Of Background Data: Magnitude of surgery is important in the metastatic spine disease (MSD) population since these patients have a continuing postoperative oncological process; a consideration that must be taken into account to maintain or improve quality of life.

Neuromonitoring in Cervical Spine Surgery: When Is a Signal Drop Clinically Significant?

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Purpose: To identify the clinical significance of different patterns of intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) signal alerts.

Overview Of Literature: IONM is a long-established valuable adjunct to complex spine surgeries.

Utility of a high-definition 3D digital exoscope for spinal surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic creates unique challenges in the practice of spinal surgery. We aim to show how the use of a high-definition 3D digital exoscope can help streamline workflows, and protect both patients and healthcare staff.

The feasibility of producing patient-specific acrylic cranioplasty implants with a low-cost 3D printer.

OBJECT Commercially available, preformed patient-specific cranioplasty implants are anatomically accurate but costly. Acrylic bone cement is a commonly used alternative. However, the manual shaping of the bone cement is difficult and may not lead to a satisfactory implant in some cases.

Delayed Occurrence of Escherichia coli Subdural Empyema Following Head Injury in an Elderly Patient: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Subdural empyema is a rare but serious intracranial infection that warrants prompt management to reduce morbidity and avoid mortality. However, clinical and radiologic features may be subtle or ambivalent. Thus a diagnosis of subdural empyema should not be discounted, especially in a patient with a history of head trauma.

Computed tomographic morphometric analysis of cervical pedicles in a multi-ethnic Asian population and relevance to subaxial cervical pedicle screw fixation.

Purpose: Pedicle screw instrumentation provides optimal stabilization of the cervical spine complex, but is associated with risk of neurovascular injury. Sex and ethnic disparities may compromise safe and accurate screw placement. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of pedicle dimensions derived from computed tomography scans is pertinent for our multi-ethnic population.

Soft tissue chondroma mimicking "dumbbell" neurogenic tumour: a rare cause of lumbar radiculopathy.

Soft tissue chondromas are rare, benign extra-skeletal tumours of cartilaginous origin, which may rarely occur within the spinal canal. We report a patient who presented with left lumbar radiculopathy, and a peripherally-enhancing dumbbell shaped soft tissue mass involving both the intraspinal and extraspinal compartments on MRI. This was misdiagnosed as a neurogenic tumour and the patient underwent surgical removal.

Routine spinal navigation for thoraco-lumbar pedicle screw insertion using the O-arm three-dimensional imaging system improves placement accuracy.

Modern image-guided spinal navigation employs high-quality intra-operative three dimensional (3D) images to improve the accuracy of spinal surgery. This study aimed to assess the accuracy of thoraco-lumbar pedicle screw insertion using the O-arm (Breakaway Imaging, LLC, Littleton, MA, USA) 3D imaging system. Ninety-two patients underwent insertion of thoraco-lumbar pedicle screws guided by O-arm navigation over a 27 month period.

A prospective study on the use of intraoperative computed tomography (iCT) for image-guided placement of thoracic pedicle screws.

Background: Placement of thoracic pedicle screws is a technically demanding procedure. The risk of thoracic pedicle breaches range from 6.5 to 41%.

Intraoperative computed tomographic angiography in cerebral aneurysm surgery: a pilot feasibility study.

Objective: To assess the feasibility and potential utility of intraoperative computed tomographic angiography (iCTA) in identifying unexpected residual aneurysms and major cerebral artery occlusion after cerebral aneurysm surgery.

Methods: We prospectively studied 6 consecutive patients with ruptured anterior circulation aneurysms who underwent craniotomy and clipping. iCTA was performed in all cases after the surgeon was satisfied that the aneurysm was completely obliterated and the clip did not occlude a major artery.