Novel Approaches Guiding the Future of Spinal Biologics for Bone Regeneration.

Purpose Of Review: Despite the continued growth of spine fusion procedures, the ideal material for bone regeneration remains unclear. Current bone graft substitutes and extenders in use such as exogenous BMP-2 or demineralized bone matrix and hydroxyapatite either have serious complications associated with use or lead to clinically significant rates of non-union. The introduction of nanotechnology and 3D printing to regenerative medicine facilitates the development of safer and more efficacious bone regenerative scaffolds that present solutions to these problems.

Opportunistic muscle measurements on staging chest CT for extremity and truncal soft tissue sarcoma are associated with survival.

Background And Objectives: Computed tomography (CT) measurements of sarcopenia have been proposed as biomarkers associated with outcomes in various cancers and have typically been evaluated at the L3 vertebral level. However, staging imaging for patients with extremity and truncal soft tissue sarcoma (STS) often only includes chest CT imaging which precludes evaluation at L3. Therefore, we sought to evaluate muscle metrics at T12 on standard staging chest CT scans and evaluate for correlation with overall and event-free survival in patients with STS.

Update on ciliary body laser procedures.

Purpose Of Review: There are currently various options available for glaucoma treatment procedures ranging from laser to penetrating to nonpenetrating surgeries. Innovations in glaucoma surgical therapeutics include features such as external application, focused tissue effects, and minimal manipulation as these factors all help lower the risk of side-effects in addition to increasing the success rate of the treatment. Traditional diode laser transscleral cyclophotocoagulation (TSCPC) is invasive and destructive.