Cervical Myelopathy without Symptoms in the Upper Extremities: Incidence and Presenting Characteristics.

Background: Common signs and symptoms of cervical myelopathy (CM) predominantly manifest in the upper extremities and include hand numbness, hand clumsiness, and distal upper extremity weakness. CM manifesting without symptoms in the upper extremities is rare. This study aimed to better understand the incidence and character of such cases.

Degenerative Spondylolisthesis: An Analysis of the Nationwide Inpatient Sample Database.

Study Design: Analysis of the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database.

Objective: To investigate national trends, risks, and benefits of surgical interventions for degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS).

Summary Of Background Data: The surgical management of DS continues to evolve whereas the most clinically and cost-effective treatment is debated.

Case reviews of infections of the spine in patients with a history of solid organ transplantation.

Study Design: Retrospective clinical case series.

Objective: To report on the epidemiological, microbiological, and clinical characteristics of spinal infections in patients who have undergone solid organ transplantation.

Summary Of Background Data: Spine infections remain a therapeutic challenge, particularly in patients who are immunocompromised.

Surgical management of lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis.

Lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS) is a common cause of low back pain, radiculopathy, and/or neurogenic claudication. Treatment begins with a trial of nonsurgical methods, including physical therapy, NSAIDs, and epidural corticosteroid injections. Surgical treatment with decompression and fusion is recommended for patients who do not respond to this initial regimen.

Biomechanical analysis of four- versus six-screw constructs for short-segment pedicle screw and rod instrumentation of unstable thoracolumbar fractures.

Background Context: Conventionally, short-segment fusion involves instrumentation of one healthy vertebra above and below the injured vertebra, skipping the injured level. This short-segment construct places less surgical burden on the patient compared with long-segment constructs, but is less stable biomechanically, and thus has resulted in clinical failures. The addition of two screws placed in the fractured vertebral body represents an attempt to improve the construct stiffness without sacrificing the benefits of short-segment fusion.

Complications and intercenter variability of three-column resection osteotomies for spinal deformity surgery: a retrospective review of 423 patients.

Study Type Retrospective review of a prospectively collected multicenter database. Introduction Three-column resection osteotomies (3CO), including pedicle subtraction osteotomies and vertebral column resections are performed for correction of sagittal deformity; however, they have high rates of reported complications. This study examined the incidence and intercenter variability of major intraoperative complications (IOC), postoperative complications (POC), and overall complications (IOC + POC) up to 6 weeks postoperation.

The use of thoracoscopy in the management of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Study Design: Retrospective case cohort series.

Objective: To analyze the outcomes of thoracoscopy in the surgical treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Summary Of Background Data: Traditionally, progressive idiopathic scoliosis has been treated surgically with either an open posterior, anterior, or combined surgical approach.