Polymethylmethacrylate-assisted ventral discectomy: rate of pseudarthrosis and clinical outcome with a minimum follow-up of 5 years.

Background: Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) assisted ventral discectomy has been criticized for high rates of graft migration and pseudarthrosis when compared with various other fusion procedures for the treatment of cervical degenerative disc disease (DDD), therefore rendering it not the preferred choice of treatment today. Recently however spine surgery has been developing towards preservation rather than restriction of motion, indicating that fusion might not be necessary for clinical success. This study presents a long term comparison of clinical and radiological data from patients with pseudarthrosis and solid arthrodesis after PMMA assisted ventral discectomy was performed.

Bedside microdialysis for early detection of cerebral hypoxia in traumatic brain injury.

Object: The authors evaluated the use of bedside cerebral online microdialysis for the detection of impending and present cerebral hypoxia in patients who had sustained traumatic brain injury.

Methods: Thirty-five severely head injured patients (with Glasgow Coma Scale scores < or = 8) were studied. Patients underwent continuous brain tissue PO2 (PtiO2) monitoring.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Historical note.

Ibn Sina (often known by his last name in Latin, Avicenna; 980-1037 A.D.) was the most famous physician and philosopher of his time.

Kinematic response of lumbar functional spinal units to axial torsion with and without superimposed compression and flexion/extension.

Experimental data suggest that lumbar torsion contributes to lumbar disc degenerative changes, such as instability, spondylolisthesis and spinal canal stenosis. However, some basic mechanical characteristics of the lumbar spine under torsional loading have not yet been reported in detail. For example, the function of the facet joints under combined mechanical loads such as torsion with superimposed flexion or extension postures is an area of interest about which little biomechanical data have been reported.

Technical aspects and results of surgery for craniosynostosis.

Background: The timing and extent of surgery continue to be a matter of discussion in current craniosynostosis management.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the first 159 children seen from 1996 to 2000 of a total of 243 patients presenting with suspected craniosynostosis. We did not establish a surgical indication in 74 children (47%), either because their malformations were of different origin without associated craniosynostosis (11/7%) or they presented with only mild clinical manifestations of sutural synostosis (63/40%).