Patient-reported outcomes after minimally invasive sacro-iliac joint surgery: a cohort study based on the Swedish Spine Registry.

Background And Purpose: There is conflicting evidence regarding treatment outcomes after minimally invasive sacroiliac joint fusion for long-lasting severe sacroiliac joint pain. The primary aim of our cohort study was to investigate change in patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) after minimally invasive sacroiliac joint surgery in daily practice in the Swedish Spine Registry. Secondary aims were to explore the proportion of patients reaching a patient acceptable symptom score (PASS) and the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for pain scores, physical function, and health-related quality of life outcomes; furthermore, to evaluate self-reported satisfaction, walking distance, and changes in proportions of patients on full sick leave/disability leave and report complications and reoperations.

Simultaneous rift-scale inflation of a deep crustal sill network in Afar, East Africa.

Decades of studies at divergent plate margins have revealed networks of magmatic sills at the crust-mantle boundary. However, a lack of direct observations of deep magma motion limits our understanding of magma inflow from the mantle into the lower crust and the mechanism of sill formation. Here, satellite geodesy reveals rift-scale deformation caused by magma inflow in the deep crust in the Afar rift (East Africa).

Surgically treated degenerative disk disease in twins.

Purpose: Previous studies have suggested that genetic factors are important in the development of degenerative disk disease (DDD). However, the concordance rates for the phenotypes requiring surgery are unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine the concordance rates for DDD requiring surgery by studying monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs.

Surgically Treated Degenerative Lumbar Spine Diseases in Twins.

Background: There is growing evidence to suggest a potential genetic component underlying the development and progression of lumbar spine diseases. However, the heritability and the concordance rates for the phenotypes requiring surgery for the common spine diseases lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) and lumbar disc herniation (LDH) are unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the heritability and the concordance rates for LSS and LDH requiring surgery by studying monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs.

Fracturing and tectonic stress drive ultrarapid magma flow into dikes.

Many examples of exposed giant dike swarms can be found where lateral magma flow has exceeded hundreds of kilometers. We show that massive magma flow into dikes can be established with only modest overpressure in a magma body if a large enough pathway opens at its boundary and gradual buildup of high tensile stress has occurred along the dike pathway prior to the onset of diking. This explains rapid initial magma flow rates, modeled up to about 7400 cubic meters per second into a dike ~15-kilometers long, which propagated under the town of Grindavík, Southwest Iceland, in November 2023.

Volcanic unrest as seen from the magmatic source: Reyðarártindur pluton, Iceland.

How the Earth's crust accommodates magma emplacement influences the signals that can be detected by monitoring volcano seismicity and surface deformation, which are routinely used to forecast volcanic eruptions. However, we lack direct observational links between deformation caused by magma emplacement and monitoring signals. Here we use field mapping and photogrammetry to quantify deformation caused by the emplacement of at least 2.

Associations between future health expectations and patient satisfaction after lumbar spine surgery: a longitudinal observational study of 9929 lumbar spine surgery procedures.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the associations between general health expectations and patient satisfaction with treatment for the two common spine surgery procedures diskectomy for lumbar disk herniation (LDH) and decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS).

Design: Register study with prospectively collected preoperative and 1-year postoperative data.

Setting: National outcome data from Swespine, the national Swedish spine register.

Patient-reported Outcome After Surgical Evacuation of Postoperative Spinal Epidural Hematomas at One-year Follow-up.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from the National Swedish Spine Register (Swespine).

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of symptomatic spinal epidural hematoma (SSEH) requiring reoperation on one-year patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in a large cohort of patients treated surgically for lumbar spinal stenosis.

Summary Of Background Data: Studies exploring the outcomes of reoperations after SSEH are scarce and often lack validated outcome measures.

Additional operation rates after surgery for degenerative spine diseases: minimum 10 years follow-up of 4705 patients in the national Swedish spine register.

Objectives: To identify rates of additional operation after the index operation for degenerative lumbar spine diseases.

Design: Retrospective register study.

Setting: National outcome data from Swespine, the National Swedish spine register.

Deformation and seismicity decline before the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption.

Increased rates of deformation and seismicity are well-established precursors to volcanic eruptions, and their interpretation forms the basis for eruption warnings worldwide. Rates of ground displacement and the number of earthquakes escalate before many eruptions, as magma forces its way towards the surface. However, the pre-eruptive patterns of deformation and seismicity vary widely.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Proxies for Segmental Instability in Degenerative Lumbar Spondylolisthesis Patients.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Objective: The aim was to investigate whether findings on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be proxies (MRIPs) for segmental instability in patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) and/or degenerative spondylolisthesis (LDS) L4/L5.

Background: LDS has a heterogeneous nature.

The minimal important change for the EQ VAS based on the SF-36 health transition item: observations from 25772 spine surgery procedures.

Purpose: The EQ VAS is an integral part of EQ-5D, a commonly used instrument for health-related quality of life assessment. This study aimed to calculate the minimal important change (MIC) thresholds for the EQ VAS for improvement and deterioration after surgery for disk herniation or spinal stenosis.

Methods: Patients, who were surgically treated for disk herniation or spinal stenosis between 2007 and 2016, were recruited from the Swedish spine register.

Stability of SF-36 profiles between 2007 and 2016: A study of 27,302 patients surgically treated for lumbar spine diseases.

Background: Previous studies have shown that patients with different lumbar spine diseases report different SF-36 profiles, but data on the stability of the SF-36 profiles are limited. The primary aim of the current study was to evaluate the stability of the SF-36 profile for lumbar spine diseases.

Methods: Patients, surgically treated between 2007 and 2016 for three lumbar spine diseases, lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) with degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS), LSS without DS, and lumbar disk herniations (LDH), were identified in the Swedish spine register.

Radiological Definitions of Sagittal Plane Segmental Instability in the Degenerative Lumbar Spine - A Systematic Review.

Study Design: Systematic Review.

Objective: To collect and group definitions of segmental instability, reported in surgical studies of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) and/or lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis (LDS). To report the frequencies of these definitions.

Additional operations after surgery for lumbar disc prolapse : indications, type of surgery, and long-term follow-up of primary operations performed from 2007 to 2008.

Aims: Lumbar disc prolapse is a frequent indication for surgery. The few available long-term follow-up studies focus mainly on repeated surgery for recurrent disease. The aim of this study was to analyze all reasons for additional surgery for patients operated on for a primary lumbar disc prolapse.

Single item self-rated general health: SF-36 based observations from 16,910 spine surgery procedures.

Purpose: In spine surgery single item patient-reported outcome assessment has been used for many years. Items 1 and 2 of SF-36 are used for assessment of general health. We used these items to explore single item, self-rated, general health assessment after spine surgery.

Patients with no preoperative back pain have the best outcome after lumbar disc herniation surgery.

Purpose: Most patients with lumbar disc herniations requiring surgery have concomitant back pain. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the outcome of surgery for lumbar disc herniations in patients with no preoperative back pain (NBP) compared to those reporting low back pain (LBP).

Methods: 15,418 patients surgically treated due to LDH with primary discectomy from 1998 until 2020 were included in the study.

Reoperations After Decompression With or Without Fusion for L3-4 Spinal Stenosis With Degenerative Spondylolisthesis: A Study of 372 Patients in Swespine, the National Swedish Spine Register.

Study Design: Register study with prospectively collected data.

Objective: The aim was to investigate reoperation rates at the index level and the adjacent levels after surgery for lumbar L3-4 spinal stenosis with concomitant degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS).

Summary Of Background Data: There are different opinions on how to surgically address lumbar spinal stenosis with DS.

Properties of the EQ-5D-5L when prospective longitudinal data from 28,902 total hip arthroplasty procedures are applied to different European EQ-5D-5L value sets.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of using different country-specific value sets in EQ-5D-5L based outcome analyses.

Methods: We obtained data on patients surgically treated with total hip arthroplasty (THA) between 2017 and 2019 from the national Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register. Preoperative and one-year postoperative data on a total of 28,902 procedures were available for analysis.

Operative treatment of cervical radiculopathy: anterior cervical decompression and fusion compared with posterior foraminotomy: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Cervical radiculopathy is the most common disease in the cervical spine, affecting patients around 50-55 year of age. An operative treatment is common clinical praxis when non-operative treatment fails. The controversy is in the choice of operative treatment, conducting either anterior cervical decompression and fusion or posterior foraminotomy.

Responsiveness of the SF-36 general health domain: observations from 14883 spine surgery procedures.

Purpose: The study evaluated perceptions of general health (GH) after surgical treatment of spinal stenosis and disk herniation. We used a large longitudinally collected data set to explore differences in responsiveness between the SF-36 GH domain, EQ VAS, EQ-5D index, and SF-6D index.

Methods: Patients, surgically treated for lumbar spinal stenosis or lumbar disk herniation between 2007 and 2017, were recruited from the national Swedish spine register.

Properties of SF-6D when longitudinal data from 16,398 spine surgery procedures is applied to 9 national SF-6D value sets.

Background and purpose - There are several national value sets for SF-6D. For studies conducted in countries without a country-specific value set the authors may use a value set from a neighboring or culturally similar county. We evaluated the consequences of using different national value sets in SF-6D index-based outcome analyses.

Reoperations after decompression with or without fusion for L4-5 spinal stenosis with or without degenerative spondylolisthesis: a study of 6,532 patients in Swespine, the national Swedish spine register.

Background and purpose - There are different opinions on how to surgically address lumbar spinal stenosis with concomitant degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS). We investigated reoperation rates at the index and adjacent levels after L4-5 fusion surgery in a large cohort of unselected patients registered in Swespine, the national Swedish spine register.Patients and methods - 6,532 patients, who underwent surgery for L4-5 spinal stenosis with or without DS between 2007 and 2012, were followed up to 2017 to identify reoperations at the index and adjacent levels.