BACKGROUND Spinal cord stimulation is an intervention that has become increasingly popular due to the growing body of literature showing its effectiveness in treating pain and the reversible nature of the treatment with implant removal. It is currently approved by the FDA for chronic pain of the trunk and limbs, intractable low back pain, leg pain, and pain from failed back surgery syndrome. In...

UNLABELLED Little is known about the role of nitric oxide in the pathophysiology of spinal cord ischemia. We evaluated the effects of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibition by N(G)-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME) in rabbits whose abdominal aorta was occluded for 20 min (Experiment 1) or 25 min (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, the L-NAME group (n = 6) received 3 mg/kg i.v. L-NAME, followe...

Paraplegia remains one of the most devastating complications of thoracoabdominal aortic surgery and is associated with a significant increase in both morbidity and mortality. Modern aortic repair techniques use many modalities aimed at reducing the risk of spinal cord ischemia inherent with surgical management. One of these modalities that acts via optimizing spinal cord blood flow is lumbar ce...

BACKGROUND Paraplegia is a serious complication of operations on the thoracic and thoracoabdominal aorta. To investigate the mechanism by which motor neurons are damaged during these operations, we have reported a rabbit model of spinal cord ischemia. We also tested whether a free radical scavenger MCI-186 that is useful for treating ischemic damage in the brain can protect against ischemic spi...

Different methods for spinal cord ischemia (SCI) prevention with sac perfusion are reported before the completion of endovascular thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair; however, today there no described techniques reperfusion in case SCI occurring after complete exclusion (48-72 hours). The “safe-line” technique allows a simple and fast (within 1 hour from symptom onset) up to 72 hours comple...

Case Report. Spinal Cord Ischemia Associated With Repair of a Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm • Spinal cord ischemia is a rare complication of rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm or its emergency surgical treatment; only seven cases have been reported previously. A patient with this complication is described. It was characterized by postoperative total loss of all forms of sensation in t...

Spinal cord injury (SCI) can induce prolonged spinal cord compression that may result in a reduction of local tissue perfusion, progressive ischemia, and potentially irreversible tissue necrosis. Due to the combination of risk factors and the varied presentation of symptoms, the appropriate method and time course for clinical intervention following SCI are not always evident. In this study, a t...

Objective(s): Paraplegia is deterioration in motor or sensory function of the lower limbs that can occur after modification of a thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm. The purpose of this survey was to determine the protective action of lutein on spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) damage. Materials and Methods: Thirty-five male rats were distributed into five groups: intact, sham, dimethyl sulfo...

abstract   objective: to evaluate and review our experience with pediatric spinal injuries and factors affecting outcome, the authors conducted a retrospective clinical study of 43 cases (32 boys, 11 girls) of pediatric spine injuries treated during four years (january 1999 to december 2003).   methods: forty-three children with spinal injuries were studied retrospectively over four years and w...

Case Report. Spinal Cord Ischemia Associated With Repair of a Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm • Spinal cord ischemia is a rare complication of rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm or its emergency surgical treatment; only seven cases have been reported previously. A patient with this complication is described. It was characterized by postoperative total loss of all forms of sensation in t...