Quality of life of lumbar stenosis-treated patients in whom the X STOP interspinous device was implanted.

Object: This study was conducted to compare the quality of life (QOL) in patients with neurogenic intermittent claudication (NIC) secondary to lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS). Using the 36-Item Short Form (SF-36) questionnaire, the authors compared the results obtained in patients treated with the X STOP Interspinous Process Decompression (IPD) System with those obtained in patients who underwent nonoperative therapies.

Methods: Patients with LSS were enrolled in a prospective 2-year multicenter study and randomized either to the X STOP or nonoperative group.

A multicenter, prospective, randomized trial evaluating the X STOP interspinous process decompression system for the treatment of neurogenic intermittent claudication: two-year follow-up results.

Study Design: A randomized, controlled, prospective multicenter trial comparing the outcomes of neurogenic intermittent claudication (NIC) patients treated with the interspinous process decompression system (X STOP) with patients treated nonoperatively.

Objective: To determine the safety and efficacy of the X STOP interspinous implant.

Summary Of Background Data: Patients suffering from NIC secondary to lumbar spinal stenosis have been limited to a choice between nonoperative therapies and decompressive surgical procedures, with or without fusion.

Alpha-smooth muscle actin in pathological human disc nucleus pulposus cells in vivo and in vitro.

That a contractile actin isoform has been found in cells of other cartilage tissues in healing and disease states prompted this investigation of the presence of alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA) in pathological human intervertebral disc tissue. The presence of this isoform has been reported in human intervertebral disc specimens obtained at autopsy from subjects for whom there were no reported symptoms. An objective of this study was to evaluate the cell density and percentage of alpha-SMA-containing cells in pathological nucleus pulposus tissue obtained from lumbar disc surgery from 17 patients.