Many etiologies may cause sciatica, and intra-abdominal masses usually affect the lumbosacral plexus by local invasion or distal metastases. Lumbosacral plexopathy caused by compression of intra-abdominal tumors instead of invasion is rarely seen. A 67-year-old woman had a 3-month history of progressive neurogenic claudication, lumbago and left L5 radiculopathy with foot drop. Nocturia and prog...

Electrodiagnostic findings of fibrillations and positive sharp waves in the lumbosacral paraspinals in patients without previous back surgery has been generally considered to be abnormal, consistent with posterior rami denervation. In some cases, it is the only abnormality on the electromyographic examination. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of abnormal spontaneous activit...

scribed in 1960 (1), is a very rare disease because the bony pelvis provides an effective shield against external injury. Thus, pelvic ring fracture or hip dislocation (1) usually precedes lumbosacral nerve root avulsion. Isolated lumbosacral nerve root avulsion is so rare that, to the best of our knowledge, only nine cases have been reported in the English literature to date (2). The diagnosti...

We have studied fracture-dislocation of the fifth lumbar vertebra in seven patients and reviewed 50 previously reported cases. Based on this information, we have classified the injury into five types: type 1, unilateral lumbosacral facet-dislocation with or without facet fracture; type 2, bilateral lumbosacral facet-dislocation with or without facet fracture; type 3, unilateral lumbosacral face...

PURPOSE To evaluate prospectively the unoperated lumbosacral spine by gadolinium-enhanced MR for evidence of clinically correlative abnormal enhancement of nerve roots. METHODS Two hundred patients were prospectively studied with intravenous gadolinium- (0.1 mmol/kg) enhanced MR. Evidence was sought of intrathecal enhancement of lumbosacral nerve root(s), and the correlation of this enhanceme...

OBJECTIVES To test whether the position of lumbosacral dermatomes varies in the presence of transitional vertebrae. MATERIAL AND METHODS Fifty consecutive male patients were tested for thoracolumbar and lumbosacral transitional vertebrae by radiography and for the position of the dermatome gap between the lumbar dermatomes L1, L2, L3, and the sacral dermatomes S2 and S3. The dermatome gap was...

Lumbosacral dislocations are rare disorders; since they were first reported by Watson-Jones [1], only 100 cases have appeared in the literature [2]. A traumatic bilateral lumbosacral dislocation is even rarer, with a mere 10 cases reported [3]. Because of its low incidence and atypical location, the lesion may often go unnoticed on initial clinical assessment [4]. Surgical treatment modalities ...

BACKGROUND To identify dosimetric parameters associated with acute hematologic toxicity (HT) in rectal cancer patients undergoing concurrent chemotherapy and intensity-modulated pelvic radiotherapy. METHODS Ninety-three rectal cancer patients receiving concurrent capecitabine and pelvic intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) were analyzed. Pelvic bone marrow (PBM) was contoured for each...

introduction: transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (trpv1) and protein kinase cγ (pkcγ) are involved in sensitization/desensitization to noxious stimuli. we aimed to examine the gene expression levels of trpv1 and pkcγ in rat lumbosacral cord and midbrain on days 1, 4 and 8 of induction of morphine analgesic tolerance. methods: two groups of male wistar rats received twice daily saline...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role of different neurophysiological tests in the differential diagnosis of diabetic axonal neuropathy (DAN) and lumbosacral radiculopathy (LSR). METHODS This study was conducted at Al-Kadhimiya Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, from July 2006 to February 2007. Twenty-seven healthy subjects, 44 type 2 diabetics, and 36 LSR patients were studied. The HbA1c level, plai...