Posterior lumbar osteotomy for flat back in adults.

Several studies describe sagittal realignment for flat back and related kyphotic decompensation. Official guidelines for sagittal and the frontal realignment have not been developed. In this retrospective study, the authors examined 10 patients with flat back syndrome and treated a related kyphotic decompensation syndrome by posterior wedge osteotomy.

[Clinical imaging of osteo-condensed metastases].

Introduction: Due to the occurrence of osteoblastic metastases in the course of various cancers, particularly in the course of prostate cancer, we are faced with diagnosis and follow-up issues different from those associated with lytic metastasis. We therefore analyzed the respective advantages of imaging techniques.

Current Knowledge And Key Points: Most of the time, osteoblastic metastases are evidenced by standard radiography.

Local control after surgical treatment of spinal metastatic disease.

Surgery was carried out on 118 patients with spinal metastatic diseases; 80 operations were palliative and 38 were curative. All patients who survived 1 year or more and all those who had local recurrence before dying (total n = 58) were included in this study. The aim of the study was to identify the factors that determine the success of local control in order to develop a new technique that could prevent local recurrence.

Hydroxylapatite-coated Diapason screws: first clinical report.

We report our preliminary experience with 27 patients who underwent surgery for posterior spinal arthrodesis using the hydroxylapatite-coated Diapason screws. Each of the patients was considered to have a condition that was mechanically risky from the surgical standpoint. The results were good for patients with lytic spondylolisthesis and were excellent for patients with osteoporosis, but were generally less successful for patients requiring "long lever arm" fixations and those with degenerative scoliosis.

[Surgical treatment of spinal metastases].

Spinal metastasis often lead to two main complications: back pain and para or tetraplegia. Performed alone radiotherapy may be too slowly efficient to allow a neurological recovery. Laminectomy may improve the neurological signs but does not induce any change on root pain and it increases instability.