BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To recommend contouring methods and atlas of organs at risk (OARs) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients receiving intensity-modulated radiotherapy, in order to help reach a consensus on interpretations of OARs delineation. METHODS AND MATERIALS Two to four contouring methods for the middle ear, inner ear, temporal lobe, parotid gland and spinal cord were identifi...

Tactile allodynia can be modeled in experimental animals by acutely blocking spinal glycine or GABA(A) receptors with intrathecal (i.t.) strychnine (STR) or bicuculline (BIC), respectively. To test the hypothesis that glycine and GABA effect cooperative (supra-additive) inhibition of touch-evoked responses in the spinal cord, male Sprague-Dawley rats, fitted with chronic i.t. catheters, were us...

Even though robotic technology holds great potential for performing spinal surgery and advancing neurosurgical techniques, it is of utmost importance to establish its practicality and to demonstrate better clinical outcomes compared with traditional techniques, especially in the current cost-effective era. Several systems have proved to be safe and reliable in the execution of tasks on a routin...

BACKGROUND Spinal cord compression and associate neurological impairment is rare in patients with scoliosis and neurofibromatosis. Common reasons are vertebral subluxation, dislocation, angulation and tumorous lesions around the spinal canal. Only twelve cases of intraspinal rib dislocation have been reported in the literature. The aim of this report is to present a case of rib penetration thro...

Paget’s disease of the spine seldom causes symptoms. Backache is uncommon, and the complication ofcauda equina or spinal cord compression, as in the three cases to be described, is rare. Indeed it has been recorded in only forty-eight patients in the literature up to 1964. Sir James Paget first described the condition ofosteitis deformans in 1877. In the advanced stages ofthe disease he noted t...

BACKGROUND Reduced spinal excitability contributes to the suppression of movement responses to noxious stimuli during the anesthetic state. This study examines and compares presynaptic and postsynaptic effects of two anesthetics in the human spinal cord. METHODS The authors tested two parameters during the administration of 0.8 vol% sevoflurane or 40 vol% nitrous oxide compared with control s...

Torso deformity is often the primary complaint of a patient with scoliosis. Non-invasive detection of progression of the underlying scoliosis from torso deformity would reduce the cancer risk associated with spinal X-rays (Levy et al., 1996) and may define the 3-D scoliosis deformity more completely and with greater sensitivity to patient concerns than simply measuring the Cobb angle on a plain...

Height gain is a common beneficial consequence following correction surgery in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), yet little is known concerning factors favoring regain of the lost vertical spinal height (SH) through posterior spinal fusion. A consecutive series of AIS patients from February 2013 to August 2015 were reviewed. Surgical changes in SH (ΔSH), as well as the multiple coronal and...

Neuromuscular disorders are a group of diseases affecting the neuro-musculo-skeletal system. Children with neuromuscular disorders frequently develop progressive spinal deformities with cardio-respiratory compromise in the most severe cases. The incidence of neuromuscular scoliosis is variable, inversely correlated with ambulatory abilities and with a reported risk ranging from 80% to 100% in n...

STUDY DESIGN Experimental scoliosis was created in an immature goat model. OBJECTIVES To create a progressive, structural, idiopathic-type, lordoscoliotic curve convex to the right in the thoracic spine of the immature goat while maintaining the anterior and posterior elements of the spine along the maximal curve in a pristine state. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Progressive scoliotic curves i...