Systematic review of the utility and limits of 3D printing in spine surgery.

Objective: The main objective of this study has been to demonstrate why additive printing allows to make complex surgical pathological processes that affect the spine more visible and understandable, increasing precision, safety and reliability of the surgical procedure.

Methods: A systematic review of the articles published in the last 10 years on 3D printing-assisted spinal surgery was carried out, in accordance with PRISMA 2020 declaration. Keywords "3D printing" and "spine surgery" were searched in Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Google Scholar and Opengrey databases, which was completed with a manual search through the list of bibliographic references of the articles that were selected following the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Spinal health in 40 patients in the initial stage of laboural life. Morfogeometric, biological and environmental study.

Introduction: Assuming that spinal shape is a genetic expression, its analysis and acquired factors could assess their respective contribution to early spine deterioration.

Material And Methods: A geometric morphometric analysis was retrospectively performed on sagittal lumbar MRI of young patients with back pain to identify lumbar spine shape changes. Using Geometric Morphometrics, findings were analyzed with anthropometric, radiological, and clinical variables.

Are Modic Changes Able to Help Us in Our Clinical Practice? A Study of the Modic Changes in Young Adults During Working Age.

Study Design: Modic changes [vertebral endplate spinal changes (VESC)] have been related to degenerative disk disease, and in past decades it was thought that their presence justified the surgical treatment, in particular spinal fusion.

Objective: The aim of the present study is to investigate its prevalence and features in a population of young workers suffering from low back pain, and explore the eventual relationship with the treatment applied in each case.

Background Data: We conducted a retrospectively review of 450 magnetic resonance images from our hospital, in patients with low back pain or sciatica and age below 40.

[Interspinous spacers and disc herniation. Geomorphometric and clinical study of 71 cases treated by L4-L5 microdiscectomy associated to spacer placement].

Objective: A controversial indication of interspinous spacers is their use as a complement to discectomy. At the present time, there is no solid clinical evidence of effectiveness of that association, which might result from variability in spacer positioning, restricting its correct biomechanical actions. In this study our goal was to identify and analyse the variability in the placement of an interspinous spacer, and to investigate its relationship with the clinical results.

Simulation in spinal diseases.

Simulation is frequent in spinal disease, resulting in problems for specialists like Orthopedic Surgeons, Neurosurgeons, Reumathologists, etc. Simulation requires demonstration of the intentional production of false or exaggerated symptoms following an external incentive. The clinician has difficulties in demonstrating these criteria, resulting in misdiagnosis of simulation or misinterpretation of the normal patient as a simulator, with the possibility of iatrogenic distress and litigation.

[Image analysis and processing. Fundaments and applications in neurology and neurosurgery].

In recent years, image techniques have transformed the diagnosis in Medicine. Nevertheless, they are, by now, far from a widespread clinic and surgical use. Beyond the simple picture inspection, DICOM digital files can be explored by using image analysis/processing techniques in a better way.