Progression of low back and lower extremity pain in a cohort of patients with achondroplasia.

Object: The aim of this study was to assess the natural history of pain associated with spinal stenosis in individuals with achondroplasia and to characterize pain patterns and associated functional and psychological effects.

Methods: The authors measured pain severity, spatial distribution of pain, functional disability, psychological distress, physical symptoms other than pain, and healthcare utilization in 181 individuals with achondroplasia. They also assessed low back and/or lower extremity pain at the initial visit and 1-year follow-up via self-rated patient questionnaires, calculated composite scores from responses via component analyses, and used repeated measures linear regression analyses for score changes (significance, p < or = 0.

Laminectomy in patients with achondroplasia: the impact of time to surgery on long-term function.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis, survey.

Objective: To describe a cohort of individuals with achondroplasia undergoing thoracolumbar laminectomy and to examine if shorter time to surgery was related to improvement in long-term functional outcome.

Summary Of Background Data: Data on the long-term benefits of laminectomy are mixed for such patients.

Surgical decompression for lumbar stenosis in pediatric achondroplasia.

Background: Spinal stenosis is a common complication of achondroplasia. To our knowledge, no study has evaluated a greater than 2-year outcome after surgical intervention for spinal stenosis in such children or compared decompression with and without instrumentation in relation to revision surgery. Our purpose was to assess the efficacy of lumbar decompression and instrumentation for symptomatic stenosis in children with achondroplasia.