Colored pain drawings: preliminary observations in a neurosurgical practice.

Background: Black and white pain drawings were introduced as a proposed means to identify patients, presenting with low back pain, who demonstrated functional overlay upon neurological testing. The use of color may enhance the usefulness of such pain drawings, but has not been described for adult patients.

Aims: To retrospectively explore the use of colored pain drawings in patients with neck, low back, or radicular pain.

Surgical treatment of lumbar spondylolisthesis.

This article provides an overview of studies that address the medical and surgical treatment of lumbar spondylolisthesis, both degenerative and isthmic. Although the efficacy of decompression for symptomatic lumbar stenosis recalcitrant to conservative treatment has been demonstrated, the addition of instrumentation to a fusion procedure remains controversial. The senior author's (VKHS) experience with pedicle screw fixation and fusion for lumbar spondylolisthesis, the addition of interbody fusion, and spinal navigation is reviewed.

Thoracoscopic approaches to the thoracic spine.

Microsurgical approaches for the treatment of pathology located in the ventral thoracic spine using video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) allow neurosurgeons to access the disc spaces, vertebral bodies, paravertebral soft tissues, spinal cord, spinal nerves, and sympathetic chain with minimally invasive surgery. This has been associated with substantial clinical benefits including reduced postoperative pain, lower complication rates and shorter recovery times when compared with standard thoracotomy techniques. This article describes the experience at our institution with VATS for discectomy (20 cases), corpectomy and spinal reconstruction (8 cases), thoracic sympathectomy (3 cases), and nerve sheath tumor removal (1 case).

Efficacy of pedicle screw fixation in the treatment of spinal instability and failed back surgery: a 5-year review.

Object: The goal of this study was to review retrospectively the outcome of 95 patients with various disorders leading to instability of the thoracolumbar and lumbar spine who were treated consecutively via a posterior surgical approach with pedicle screw fixation in which the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital system was used.

Methods: All cases were managed according to the same protocol. Follow-up review averaged 29.

Posterior atlantoaxial facet screw fixation in rheumatoid arthritis.

Object: This retrospective review was conducted to determine the efficacy of transarticular screw fixation in a group of patients who were treated for rheumatoid atlantoaxial instability.

Methods: Thirty-six patients (mean age 63 years) with rheumatoid atlantoaxial instability were treated with posterior atlantoaxial transarticular screw fixation supplemented with an interspinous C1-2 strut graft-cable construct to provide immediate three-point fixation to facilitate bone fusion. Previous attempts at fusions by using bone grafting with wire fixation at other institutions had failed in six of these patients.

Axis fractures resulting from motor vehicle accidents. The need for occupant restraints.

A total of 625 patients who sustained acute cervical spine fractures were evaluated by the Spinal Cord Injury Service at Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, between January 1976 and January 1984. Of them, 107 had fractures of the second cervical vertebra. In a retrospective review, motor vehicle accidents were found to be the most common mechanism of injury, resulting in 73 (68%) of the 107 axis fractures.

Occipital artery to extradural vertebral artery bypass procedure. Case report.

A 17-year-old boy suffered blunt trauma to the posterior cervical spine and later developed vertebrobasilar transient ischemic attacks refractory to medical management. At angiography, a pseudoaneurysm of the distal left vertebral artery was found. By means of a posterior midline approach, an extradural occipital artery to vertebral artery anastomosis was performed and the affected vertebral artery was clipped distal to the pseudoaneurysm.