X-stop versus decompressive surgery for lumbar neurogenic intermittent claudication: randomized controlled trial with 2-year follow-up.

Study Design: Prospective randomized controlled study.

Objective: To compare the outcome of indirect decompression by means of the X-Stop (Medtronics Inc., Minneapolis, MN) implant with conventional decompression in patients with neurogenic intermittent claudication due to lumbar spinal stenosis.

Early course and long-term follow-up after automated percutaneous lumbar discectomy.

In this prospective study, the clinical outcome in the early course as well as the long-term results were analyzed after automated percutaneous lumbar discectomy (APLD). Thirty consecutive patients are included, all with a contained lumbar disc herniation on magnetic resonance imaging. There was a significant reduction in the sciatic pain and straight leg raising (SLR) test postoperatively at all the different measurements in the early course except for the sciatic pain at 2 weeks.

A prospective study of preoperative and postoperative sequential magnetic resonance imaging and early clinical outcome in automated percutaneous lumbar discectomy.

The authors evaluated the size of the disc herniation with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before and after surgery in patients undergoing automated percutaneous lumbar discectomy (APLD) and compared the MRI findings with the early clinical outcome. This study includes 20 consecutive patients with a contained lumbar disc herniation. Sequential MRI were performed immediately before and after surgery, on the day of surgery, and 6 weeks after surgery.

Operations for impingement of the shoulder. Early results in 52 patients.

This is a prospective study of 52 consecutive patients with impingement syndrome of the shoulder who underwent an anterior acromioplasty according to Neer with rotator cuff repair and/or a resection of the lateral end of the clavicle added where it was indicated. There was a full-thickness tear in 14 cases. The follow-up was 11 months.