BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE MRI is the modality of choice when diagnosing spinal stenosis but it also shows that stenosis is prevalent in asymptomatic subjects over 60. The relationship between preoperative health-related quality of life, functional status, leg and back pain, and the objectively measured dural sac area in single and multilevel stenosis is unknown. We assessed this relationship in a ...

OBJECTIVE The incidence of spinal treatment, including nerve block, radiofrequency neurotomy, instrumented fusions, is increasing, and progressively involves patients of age 65 and older. Treatment of the geriatric patients is often a difficult challenge for the spine surgeon. General health, sociofamilial and mental condition of the patients as well as the treatment techniques and postoperativ...

Spinal stenosis is a term that means narrowing of the spinal canal or the nerve root foramina. It is thus divided into central or lateral stenosis. Central stenosis produces compression of the thecal sac: soft tissue (ligamentum flavum and disc) may contribute as much as 40% to this compression. It is more common in males because their spinal canal is smaller at the L3-L5 level. Lateral stenosi...

STUDY DESIGN A reliability assessment of standardized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) interpretations and measurements. OBJECTIVE To determine the intra- and inter-reader reliability of MRI features of lumbar spinal stenosis (SPS), including severity of central, subarticular, and foraminal stenoses, grading of nerve root impingement, and measurements of cross-sectional area of the spinal can...

A technique of combined expanding laminoplasty using longitudinal interspinous iliac bone graft with posterior lateral mass plate is described for the treatment of cervical canal stenosis associated with spinal instability. A 52-year-old male and a 76-year-old female presented with cervical myelopathy. Imaging studies demonstrated spondylotic cervical canal stenosis associated with spinal insta...

Children with Albright's hereditary osteodystrophy (AHO) suffering from spinal cord compression are rarely reported worldwide. The association of compressive myelopathy with AHO is not still well known. AHO is a rare heterogeneous group of inherited disorders and results from the GNAS mutation. AHO manifests in two different phenotypes, pseudohypoparathyroidism type Ia (PHP-Ia) and pseudopsedoh...

We reviewed the records of 28 patients with 30 burst-dispersion spinal fractures treated since the introduction of CT facilities in Western Australia. Twenty-five patients showed spinal canal deformity and stenosis with bone fragments protruding into the canal on the initial scan. Of these, 22 patients were treated nonsurgically. Fifteen of the conservatively treated patients were available for...

INTRODUCTION Denervation of the paraspinal muscles in spinal disorders is frequently attributed to radiculopathy. Therefore, patients with lumbar spinal stenosis causing asymmetrical symptoms should have asymmetrical paraspinal denervation. METHODS Seventy-three patients with clinical lumbar spinal stenosis, aged 55-85 years, completed a pain drawing and underwent masked electrodiagnostic tes...

BACKGROUND It is well known that age-related fibrosis, or decreases in the elastin-to-collagen ratio of the ligamentum flavum, along with hypertrophy of the ligamentum flavum, are associated with lumbar spinal stenosis. However, the molecular mechanism by which this fibrosis and hypertrophy develop is unknown. Tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase (TIMPs) are proteinase inhibitors that ...