Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) and sagittal imbalance are relatively common in elderly patients. Although the goals of surgery include both functional and radiological improvements, the criteria of correction may be too strict for elderly patients. If the main symptom of patients is not forward-stooping but neurogenic claudication or pain, lumbar decompression without adding fusion procedure may be a surgical option.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite numerous studies, the pathogenesis of ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) is still unclear. Previous genetic studies proposed variations in genes related to bone and collagen as a cause of OPLL. It is unclear whether the upregulations of those genes are the cause of OPLL or an intermediate result of endochondral ossification process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMRI is the primary diagnostic modality for spinal cord tumors. However, its validity has never been vigorously scrutinized in daily routine clinical practice, where MRI tissue diagnosis is usually not a single one but multiple ones with several differential diagnoses. Here, we aimed to assess the validity of MRI in terms of predicting the pathology and location of the tumor in routine clinical settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Total en bloc spondylectomy (TES) is a curative surgical method for spinal tumors. After resecting the 3 spinal columns, reconstruction is of paramount importance. We present cases of mechanical failure and suggest strategies for salvage surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: When pain caused by lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is not relieved after 4 to 6 weeks of conservative treatment, surgery is recommended. Open microdiscectomy is a standard surgical technique, but surgical endoscopy enables endoscopic lumbar surgery with clinical outcomes similar to those of standard microdiscectomy. Endoscopic lumbar discectomy is largely divided into transforaminal endoscopic lumbar discectomy (TELD) and interlaminar endoscopic lumbar discectomy (IELD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cerebrovasc Endovasc Neurosurg
June 2017
There are a number of complications associated with ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) surgery. The authors present a rare case of iatrogenic common carotid artery injury during VPS surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The purpose of this study is to describe the detailed surgical technique and short-term clinical and radiological outcomes of lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) and lateral screw fixation using a conventional minimally invasive screw fixation system (MISF) for revision surgery to treat rostral lumbar adjacent segment disease.
Methods: The medical and radiological records were retrospectively reviewed. The surgery was indicated in 10 consecutive patients with rostral adjacent segment stenosis and instability.
Objective: In addition to bone bridging inside a cage or graft (intragraft bone bridging, InGBB), extragraft bone bridging (ExGBB) is commonly observed after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) with a stand-alone cage. However, solid bony fusion without the formation of ExGBB might be a desirable condition. We hypothesized that an insufficient contact area for InGBB might be a causative factor for ExGBB.
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