As a result of rapid advances in the field of spinal instrumentation, the surgeon today has at his disposal many well-designed implants, such as pedicle screws, hooks, rods, plates, and interbody fusion devices. Many of these implants are modular and are used in combination, such as hooks and screws attached to rods, allowing the surgeon flexibility in selecting the appropriate implants to meet...

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic granulomatous infection caused by acid-fast mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli. Spinal involvement occurs in less than one percent of TB. Spinal TB (Pott's disease) accounts for 50% of skeletal TB. Though it most commonly affects the thoracolumbar junction, it can occur at any level of the spine. Early diagnosis and treatment is mandatory in order to avoid neurolo...

Cervical and lumbosacral radiculopathies are conditions involving a pathological process affecting the spinal nerve root. Commonly, this is a herniated nucleus pulposis that anatomically compresses a nerve root within the spinal canal. Another common etiology for radiculopathy is spinal stenosis resulting from a combination of degenerative spondylosis, ligament hypertrophy, and spondylolisthesi...

Pyogenic spondylitis is a frequently observed disease in orthopedics, and the number of cases is increasing. Some patients with pyogenic spondylitis suffer from vertebral destruction due to infection. The disease is typically treated with antibiotics, bed rest, spinal support, and lesion curettage; however, vigorous drug therapy against vertebral body destruction by pyogenic spondylitis has not...

Radionuclide imaging studies are routinely used to evaluate patients suspected of having musculoskeletal infection. Three-phase bone imaging is readily available, relatively inexpensive, and very accurate in the setting of otherwise normal bone. Labeled leukocyte imaging should be used in cases of “complicating osteomyelitis” such as prosthetic joint infection. This test also is useful in clini...

In guinea pigs, thymidine kinase-producing strains of herpes simplex virus type 2 replicated to high titer in the vagina and spinal cord, and animals developed severe clinical disease. Infection with thymidine kinase-deficient virus resulted in similar vaginal virus titers; however, animals exhibited little or no clinical illness and only low titers of virus were detected in spinal cord homogen...

Abstract Aim The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Bone Infection Service (ROH BIS) is one of the four formal bone infection services in United Kingdom, providing multidisciplinary care and community support for patients with infection. This service evaluation to document burden, pattern subsequent treatment by ROH BIS treating those spinal infection, both native following surgery. Method a retrospect...

An elderly woman with a chronic decubitus sacral ulcer presented to the emergency department with sepsis. A computed tomography of her abdomen showed diffuse gas extending throughout the thoracolumbar spinal canal. Pneumorrhachis is a rare radiographic finding defined as gas within the spinal canal. There are many causes of pneumorrhachis ranging from trauma to infection. In this case the pneum...

Neurocysticercosis is the most common central nervous system (CNS) parasitic disease worldwide, but spinal cysticercal infection is relatively rare, especially in the United States. Because of increased immigration to the United States from endemic areas, the incidence of neurocysticercosis has risen, especially in California, Texas, Arizona, and other southwestern states, but not in Wisconsin....

The spread of the abnormal conformation of the prion protein, PrP(Sc), within the spinal cord is central to the pathogenesis of transmissible prion diseases, but the mechanism of transport has not been determined. For this report, the route of transport of the HY strain of transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME), a prion disease of mink, in the central nervous system following unilateral inocul...