Challenges in Contemporary Spine Surgery: A Comprehensive Review of Surgical, Technological, and Patient-Specific Issues.

Spine surgery has significantly progressed due to innovations in surgical techniques, technology, and a deeper understanding of spinal pathology. However, numerous challenges persist, complicating successful outcomes. Anatomical intricacies at transitional junctions demand precise surgical expertise to avoid complications.

Spinal projecting neurons in rostral ventromedial medulla co-regulate motor and sympathetic tone.

Many behaviors require the coordinated actions of somatic and autonomic functions. However, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. By opto-stimulating different populations of descending spinal projecting neurons (SPNs) in anesthetized mice, we show that stimulation of excitatory SPNs in the rostral ventromedial medulla (rVMM) resulted in a simultaneous increase in somatomotor and sympathetic activities.

Imaging demyelinated axons after spinal cord injuries with PET tracer [ F]3F4AP.

Spinal cord injuries (SCI) often lead to lifelong disability. Among the various types of injuries, incomplete and discomplete injuries, where some axons remain intact, offer potential for recovery. However, demyelination of these spared axons can worsen disability.

Promoting community engagement in spinal cord injury research: a case example.

Community engagement is an important method of knowledge translation in spinal cord injury (SCI) research where researchers collaborate with people with lived experience, care partners, and other research users to improve the quality of research. This perspective article aims to promote community engagement in SCI research by describing useful resources for its implementation and providing an example project using the North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium (NASCIC) process for such partnerships. Researchers from the Jefferson College of Rehabilitation Sciences' (JCRS) Center for Outcomes and Measurement engaged NASCIC to create an advisory committee composed of four people living with SCI to make recommendations for the methods of a large-scale study to develop a clinical outcome assessment.