The most common cause of lumbar or sacral nerve-root compression probably is herniation of the nucleus pulposus. There are some patients with typical clinical-and even radiological-evidence of ne'rVe root compression, however, in whom no herniation is found at operation; instead the nerve root is compressed by a fold in the posterior longitudinal ligament, and, when this is excised, there is

Introduction It has been reported that biologically active substances such as prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes, which are metabolites involved in the arachidonic acid cascade, are present in herniated disc samples obtained from patients with lumbar disc herniation. However, little is known concerning the relationships between these substances and clinical symptoms including radicul...

STUDY DESIGN A prospective study randomized by patient choice from the private practice of a single physician affiliated with a major teaching hospital was conducted. OBJECTIVES To compare transforaminal epidural steroid injections with saline trigger-point injections used in the treatment of lumbosacral radiculopathy secondary to a herniated nucleus pulposus. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Epi...

Percutaneous disc surgery, also known as percutaneous discectomy (PD), for herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP) was introduced by Hijikata [1] in Japan. Indeed, as compared with traditional disc surgery such as love’s procedure, PD is minimally invasive since it can be performed under local anesthesia. However, Hijikata’s technique does not use a spinal endoscope; thus, its reliability for the remo...

Cellular interactions with the extracellular matrix are key factors regulating cell survival, differentiation, and response to environmental stimuli in cartilagenous tissues. Much is known about the extracellular matrix proteins in the intervertebral disc (IVD) and their variations with region, age, or degenerative state of the tissue. In contrast, little is known of the integrin cell surface r...

Early signs of degenerate intervertebral discs include a decrease in the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content within the nucleus pulposus and the annulus fibrosus, which has been linked to an alteration in the mechanics of the disc. However, the mechanisms for this reduction in GAG are currently unknown. An animal model that demonstrates disc degeneration would be useful not only for understanding t...

This review article describes anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology and treatment of intervertebral disc. The intervertebral discs lie between the vertebral bodies, linking them together. The components of the disc are nucleus pulposus, annulus fibrosus and cartilagenous end-plates. The blood supply to the disc is only to the cartilagenous end-plates. The nerve supply is basically through the si...

Tissue engineering offers high hopes for the treatment of intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. Whereas scaffolds of the disc nucleus and annulus have been extensively studied, a truly biomimetic and mechanically functional biphasic scaffold using naturally occurring extracellular matrix is yet to be developed. Here, a biphasic scaffold was fabricated with collagen and glycosaminoglycans (GAG...

Purpose: To explore the inhibitory effect and mechanism of action CXCR4 on intervertebral disc degeneration.Methods: The expression was assessed in different degrees degenerate tissues. Nucleus pulposus (NP) cells-induced degeneration were obtained using interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) stimulation. inhibitor, AMD 3100, employed to resist function CXCR4, order determine whether inhibition acted by ta...