Spinal stenosis can be a very disabling condition. Surgical decompression carries a risk of dural tear and neural injury, which is increased in patients with severe stenosis or an atypical anatomy. We present an unusual case of symptomatic stenosis secondary to achondroplasia presenting in a paediatric patient, and highlight a new surgical technique used to minimise the risk of dural and neural...

A large maxillary cyst was treated for 3 months with marsupialization and decompression, followed by surgical endodontic therapy of the affected teeth and cystectomy. Although small cystic lesions will typically heal with nonsurgical endodontic therapy, larger lesions may need additional treatment. Surgical enucleation of a large cystic lesion may lead to damage of other teeth or anatomic struc...

Orbital floor fractures are generally the result of blowout orbital and may be associated with orbital emphysema leading to proptosis and even to loss of vision. A 49-year-old woman fractured the orbital floor in a fall. After blowing her nose, she developed exophthalmos and severe reduction in vision. She consulted our department and underwent emergency surgical management with orbital drainag...

The natural history of Chiari malformation and our ability to alter it is poorly understood, and reported results of hindbrain decompression show high recurrence rates. We report 11 years of experience of hindbrain decompression, to evaluate long-term outcome related to surgical technique. The results of patients who underwent hindbrain decompression between 1994 and 2005 were retrospectively a...

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective analysis of a prospective, multicenter cohort study. OBJECTIVE To estimate the added effect of surgical fusion as compared to decompression surgery alone in symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis patients with spondylolisthesis. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA The optimal surgical management of lumbar spinal stenosis patients with spondylolisthesis remains controversial. ...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in cerebral hemodynamics, tissue oxygenation and blood flow before and after surgery for spontaneous intracerebral hematomas. METHODS Eleven patients who underwent surgical decompression of spontaneous putaminal hematoma were studied. Intracranial pressure (ICP), cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), brain tissue oxygen (PtiO2), and ca...

Patients at risk for compartmental syndromes challenge both the diagnostic and the therapeutic abilities of the physician. Suboptimum results may be due to delays in diagnosis and treatment, to incomplete surgical decompression, and to difficulties in the management of the limb after decompression. Although careful clinical assessment permits the diagnosis of a compartmental syndrome in most pa...

Pulmonary hemodynamics were studied in 11 patients with hepatic cirrhosis who had undergone surgical portal decompression several years earlier. Four of the patients had both clinical and physiological evidence of pulmonary hypertension; two others had mild, subelinical pulmonary hypertension. Autopsy examination of two patients who had clinical evidence of pulmonary hypertension revealed thick...

Discogenic leg pain is a primary cause of health care expenditure in the U.S.A., afflicting nearly 10 million people at an estimated cost of over $20 billion.(1,2) This pain is often due to herniation of the intervertebral disc (3-5) and clinically characterized as compressive or noncompressive. (3) Compressive herniations have been treated with open surgical discectomy/decompression when a pro...

STUDY DESIGN Systematic review using a modified network analysis. OBJECTIVES To compare the effectiveness and morbidity of interspinous-device placement versus surgical decompression for the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis. SUMMARY Traditionally, the most effective treatment for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis is through surgical decompression. Recently, interspinous devices have be...