Publications by authors named "Usha Balmuri"
Objectives: Cervical radiculopathy may cause symptoms and loss of function that can lead to a significant reduction in health related quality of life (HRQOL). As part of a comprehensive review of long-term outcomes, we examined HRQOL in a large cohort of patients undergoing posterior cervical foraminotomy (FOR) for radiculopathy.
Patients And Methods: 338 patients who underwent FOR between 1990 and 2009 participated in a telephone interview designed to measure symptomatic and functional improvements following surgery.
Background: The efficacy and safety of cervical laminoforaminotomy (FOR) in the treatment of cervical radiculopathy has been demonstrated in several series with follow-up less than a decade. However, there is little data analyzing the relative effectiveness of FOR for radiculopathy due to soft disc versus osteophyte disease. In the present study, we review our experience with FOR in a single-center cohort, with long-term follow-up.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The present meta-regression pools data from reports of long-term follow-up (>2 years) to assess durability of the efficacy associated with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery.
Data Sources: Medline and PubMed searches for articles pertaining to long-term weight loss after RYGB surgery were performed.
Background: Various studies have consistently shown short-term (<2 years) efficacy of RYGB surgery for morbid obesity, corroborated by meta-analytic techniques.
Aims: To determine the success threshold at which a theoretical course of deep brain stimulation (DBS) would provide the same quality of life (QoL) and cost-effectiveness for heroin dependence as methadone maintenance treatment (MMT).
Design: We constructed a decision analysis model to calculate QoL after 6 months of MMT and compared it to a theoretical course of DBS. We also performed a cost-effectiveness analysis using societal costs of heroin dependence, MMT and DBS.