A critical evaluation of discography in patients with lumbar intervertebral disc disease.

Study Design: The study is a prospective observational study of 48 continuous patients with symptomatic lumbar degenerative disk disease. Each patient underwent discography, MRI, and a biochemical analysis of disk lavage fluid.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to correlate concordant pain on discography with MRI grade and biochemical markers of inflammation in a clinical setting.

Evaluation of non-lead-based protective radiological material in spinal surgery.

Background Context: Traditionally, lead-based garments are the standard method of intraoperative radiation protection during fluoroscopy. Unfortunately, the lead used is heavy, lacks durability, is difficult to launder, and its disposal is associated with environmental hazards.

Purpose: An evaluation of the protective radiation efficiency of three commercially available radiation protective garments compared with a standardized lead protective shield.

Cytokine assay of the epidural space lavage in patients with lumbar intervertebral disk herniation and radiculopathy.

Introduction: Lumbar disk herniation may result in a radiculopathic pattern of symptoms. Consideration for a primary biochemical inducement of pain over a mechanical mechanism is a contemporary topic of spinal research. However, the exact pathomechanism by which a degenerative intervertebral disk leads to neural inflammation and pain has not been determined.

Symptomatic cervical disc herniation following a motor vehicle collision: return to work comparative study of workers' compensation versus personal injury insurance status.

Background Context: Patients with approved workers' compensation injuries receive guaranteed compensation for the duration of their injury, whereas patients with personal injury claims are only compensated, if at all, at the time of a successful settlement or trial verdict at a time point distant from their injury.

Purpose: This study compares the financial impact and loss of work patterns due to a workers' compensation (WC) claim or personal injury in patients with a symptomatic cervical disc herniation resulting from a motor vehicle collision.

Study Design: A prospective study of patients who were seen by a single spine specialist between 1/2/96 and 9/1/01.

Is wound drainage necessary after lumbar spinal fusion surgery?

Background: Despite a lack of any evidence to support the utilization of closed-suction drainage after spinal surgery, it is a frequently utilized procedure.

Material/methods: A retrospective evaluation of eighty-five consecutive posterior lumbar fusions at a single level for degenerative disease was performed during the six-year period between March of 1996 and February 2002 by a single surgeon. No patient had a drain placed at the conclusion of the surgical procedure.

Conjoined lumbar nerve roots: a frequently underappreciated congenital abnormality.

Nerve root anomalies are frequently underrecognized on advanced imaging studies and may account for some percentage of failed spinal surgical procedures. The conjoined nerve root represents the most common nerve root anomaly. It is a well-known cause of false-positive readings for bulging and herniated disks in patients with purely axial neuroimaging studies.