Spirituality but not Religiosity Is Associated with Better Health and Higher Life Satisfaction among Adolescents.

Careful conceptualization and differentiation of both spirituality and religiosity is a necessary precondition for understanding the potential role they play in health, whether physical or mental. The aim of this study was to explore the associations of spirituality with self-rated health, health complaints, and life satisfaction of adolescents with the moderating role of religiosity. Data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study conducted in 2014 in Slovakia were used.

[Verification of a surgical technique using a new biotitanium cage in degenerative diseases of the lumbar spine--experimental study].

Purpose Of The Study: Authors performed experimental PLIF operations on cadavers to verify appropriate shape and size of cage made from bioactive titan material. The approach for application into intervertebral space of the lumbar spine and appearance on X-ray and CT scans was also investigated.

Material: In experiment on cadavers five implantations of interbody cages were performed, two of them in interbody space L3/L4 and three of them in L4/L5.

[Treatment of instability of the lumbar spine by glass-ceramic prostheses of the intervertebral disc.].

The authors evaluated the short-term results of stabilization operations of the lumbar spine by means of a glass-ceramics replacement of the intervertebral disc in a group of 25 patients. Indication for operation was monosegmental instability or spondylolisthesis grade I in the lumbar spine with progressing clinical symptoms. In 20 patients stabilization was achieved merely by a pair of glass-ceramic endoprostheses, in five patients the stabilization operation was supplemented by transpedicular instrumentation.

[Replacement of an intervertebral disc, using a ceramic prosthesis, in the treatment of degenerative diseases of the spine.].

The authors tested in experimentally a suitable shape and approach to replacement of an intervertebral disc by means of an endoprosthesis made from glass-ceramic material of Lasak Co. In experiments on post-mortem material they succeded eventually in creating the optimal shape and finding a route of administration of the endoprosthesis into the intervertebral space. The endoprosthesis should create a spondylodesis and primary fixation of the affected portion of the lumbar spine.