Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate long-term changes in bone density profile among survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Patients and Methods: This was a 5 year prospective study comprised of thirty-one survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a mean age of 11.8 (4.6) years, who completed therapy at least 1 year previously (according to the ...

Local sympathetic denervation by surgical sympathectomy is used in the treatment of lower limb ulcers and ischemia, but the restoration of cutaneous sympathetic nerve functions is less clear. This study aims to explore the recovery of cutaneous sympathetic functions after bilateral L2-4 sympathectomy. The skin temperature of the left feet, using a point monitoring thermometer, increased intraop...

STUDY DESIGN A computed tomography study. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to clarify the position of the aorta relative to the spine in patients with Lenke type 1 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Several authors have examined the position of the aorta in patients with scoliosis; however, their analysis included several types of curve. There is a possibility tha...

We present a 49 year old man who presented to the emergency department with severe lower back pain of 5 days duration. One week prior he had been diagnosed with a right psoas muscle abscess and was discharged with a 28 day course of moxifloxacin after the preliminary culture from the psoas grew an anaerobic organism. MRI of the lumbar spine showed marrow edema in the L2 body, occupying most of ...

BACKGROUND A case of primary intramedullary glioblastoma occurring at conus medullaris is presented, which was initially undetected and misdiagnosed as L1 through L2 disk herniation. CASE DESCRIPTION After the performance of L1 through L2 discectomy, the patient's initial painful symptom did not subside. The patient then developed a progressive paraparesis. The outside surgeons only predicted...

A schwannoma is a benign nerve sheath tumor composed of Schwann cells. Spinal schwannoma originates from dorsal roots of the spinal cord, causing symptoms due to the compression of neighboring structures. We present a patient with a low back pain and left L2 and L3 radiculopathy. Neuroimaging techniques (CT, MRI) showed a large expansive mass in the left lumbar paraspinal area. The tumor was re...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to measure the changes in the volume (and fluid content) of the lumbar intervertebral discs (L1-L2, L2-L3, L3-L4, L4-L5) in five normal subjects. For each subject, MRI scans were taken at the end of a normal day and again on the following morning (after a night's bed rest). Ten further scans were taken during an 8-h protocol consisting of alternate peri...

RATIONALE Caudal epidural injection is one of the conventional treatments of chronic back pain. Even though spinal epidural hematoma after caudal epidural injection is rare but it can cause serious neurologic complication. PATIENT CONCERNS An 83-year-old woman taking cilostazol received caudal epidural steroid injection because of her chronic back pain. Six hours later, she experienced an acu...

The distribution of end-plate lesions (Schmorl's nodes) and their relationship to bone density and disc degeneration have been studied in 50 post-mortem spines below D9 in subjects aged 13-96 years. Lesions were present in 76% of cases with a predominance in males. They were found more frequently in the lower than in the upper vertebral end-plate. They were also more common and more severe in t...

Osteoporosis is a polygenic disorder that is determined by the effects of several genes, each with relatively modest effects on bone mass. The aim of this study was to determine whether the vitamin D receptor single nucleotide polymorphism BsmI is associated with bone mineral density (BMD) in Spanish postmenopausal women. A total of 210 unrelated healthy postmenopausal women aged 60 ± 8 years w...