Clinical outcome following decompression and short or long instrumented fusion in lumbar degenerative spinal stenosis. A prospective case-control analysis.

Objectives: There is limited data on the direct clinical comparison between short and long fusion following surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis. The hypothesis that regardless their baseline characteristics and morbidity, clinical outcome is similar in patients with lumbar stenosis treated with decompression plus posterior instrumented fusion in one or two versus three to five levels was tested.

Methods: Subjects were divided into Group A and Group B corresponding to stenotic pathology and instrumented fusion in one or two levels and three to five levels, respectively.

The Role of Cervical Muscles Morphology in the Surgical Treatment of Degenerative Disc Disease: Clinical Correlations Based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies.

Cervical spine musculature still remains a less studied component of the cervical spine anatomical compartments, although it plays a significant role in the mobility of the head and the preservation of cervical spine alignment. The goal of this study was to extract any significant information from the literature regarding the role of cervical spine muscles morphology in the outcome of surgically treated patients for degenerative disc disease (DDD) based on preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies. Eleven clinical case series were found, from which four were prospective and seven were retrospective.

Brain abscess in a rheumatoid arthritis patient treated with leflunomide - A case presentation and review.

Background: Immunosuppression is a significant parameter in the pathogenesis of brain abscesses (BA) and it could be the result of severe infections such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or drug-induced, by several medications used for systemic autoimmune diseases. Leflunomide is a pyrimidine synthesis inhibitor that affects the proliferation of lymphocytes and is used as a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug. Mild infections, particularly those of the respiratory tract and herpes zoster, are one of its most common adverse effects.

Frontal bone fibrous dysplasia in a 6-months-old boy: A distinctive entity.

Fibrous Dysplasia (FD) is a non-malignant condition caused by post-zygotic, activating mutations of the GNAS gene that results in inhibition of the differentiation and proliferation of bone-forming stromal cells and leads to the replacement of normal bone and marrow by fibrous tissue and woven bone. The clinical behavior and progression of FD is variable. The management of this condition is difficult and in every case is strictly individualized.