Benchmarking retirement: a best practices decision.

Making the decision to retire from active practice is a complex process with very strong psychological overtones. Successful retirement demands preplanning, and financial preplanning must begin very early in the career to achieve the time value of money. Psychological preparation requires recognition that retirement is inevitable, and an avenue of change for yourself and your spouse should be identified, anticipated, and refined over time.

Spinal instability due to malignant disease. Treatment by segmental spinal stabilization.

Seven patients with a malignant tumor were treated for spinal instability with Luque-rod fixation either with or without bone-grafting. The stabilization was successful in all patients, including five who died as a result of the tumor between six and eighteen months postoperatively. Two patients were still alive at an average of twenty-two months after operation.