Blood is a potent irritant to nervous tissue and alone can cause arachnoiditis. In combination with chemical substances, the risk is magnified. This was first noted in relation to oil-based myelographic dyes by Howland and Curry ( [1] ) who found that in dogs, blood and dye together caused severe adverse effects. Hence dural puncture during epidural administration of drugs should be treated ser...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of anti-adhesion barrier agents following lumbar microdiscectomy. METHODS Healon GV or Adcon-L was applied to a laminectomy defect overlying the duramater in 60 patients assigned to 3 randomized groups: Group I - Adcon-L (n=21), Group II - Healon GV (n=21), and Group III - control group, no adhesion barrier used (n=18). We conducted this study between 2004 a...

With laminectomy being widely accepted as the treatment for lumbar disorders, epidural fibrosis (EF) is a common complication for both the patients and the surgeons alike. Currently, EF is thought to cause recurrent postoperative pain after laminectomy or after discectomy. Angelica sinensis is a traditional Chinese medicine which has shown anti-inflammatory, antifibrotic, and antiproliferative ...

AIM Postlaminectomy epidural fibrosis is the formation of scar tissue over the dura mater following posterior spinal surgery. This devastating complication is responsible for the substantial amount of failed back syndromes. MATERIAL and METHODS Twenty male Wistar-Albino rats each weighing 350-400 grams were used. Following L3-L5 laminectomy, the rats were randomly divided into 2 g...

MATERIAL We report our experience between May 1996 and May 2003 with 2200 patients affected by low back pain or sciatica due to herniated disk treated by intradiscal and intraforaminal oxygen-ozone injection. The patients received medical and physical therapy before treatment for at least 2 months; the patients with conus-cauda syndrome and hyperalgesic sciatica were excluded. We never performe...

BACKGROUND Continuous epidural analgesic infusions provide superior analgesia as compared to other forms of labor analgesia. However, inadequate analgesia after labor epidurals is not uncommon and has been found to be as high as 24% in some studies. The mechanism of these failures include inappropriate epidural catheter location, tissue compartmentalization within epidural space, delayed migrat...

Spontaneous Spinal Epidural Hematoma (SSEH) is a rare spinal condition. Early surgical intervention is generally indicated to prevent serious permanent neurological deficits. We encountered a case of spontaneous spinal epidural hematomas associated with motor weakness that was treated successfully by surgical evacuation.

The aim of this study was to determine whether anesthesia consisting of sedation induced by intramuscular administration of xylazine-diazepam and lumbosacral analgesia induced by epidural administration of lidocaine and xylazine is satisfactory for castration and ovariohysterectomy in cats. Six adult (3 male and 3 female, 2.5 ± 0.5 years of age) cats (mean body weight ± SD, 2.2 ± 0.44 kg) were ...