Spine & Spinal Disease Journal Scan

BACKGROUND: Parkinson disease is the second most common neurodegenerative condition. The literature on patients with Parkinson disease and spine surgery is limited, but increased complications have been reported.

METHODS: All patients with Parkinson disease undergoing lumbar spine surgery between 2002 and 2012 were identified. Patients' charts, radiographs, and outcome questionnaires were reviewed. Parkinson disease severity was assessed with use of the modified Hoehn and Yahr staging scale. Complications and subsequent surgeries were analyzed. Risk for reoperation was assessed.

RESULTS: Ninety-six patients underwent lumbar spine surgery. The mean patient age was 63.0 years. The mean follow-up duration was 30.1 months. The Parkinson disease severity stage was

The Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS) is the #1 clinical review journal of musculoskeletal education in the world. The peer-reviewed articles presented each month in JAAOS critically evaluate and synthesize current information regarding the diagnosis and management of musculoskeletal conditions and document the current state of orthopaedic practice.

The editorial board of JAAOS represents every subspecialty within orthopaedic medicine: Sports Medicine, Trauma, Pediatric Orthopaedics, Hip and Knee, Spine, Shoulder and Elbow, Hand and Wrist, Foot and Ankle, and Musculoskeletal Oncology, as well as areas of general orthopaedic interest. This diversity of topics is reflected in every issue of the Journal.

Editor's Pick

The influence of adjacent level disc disease on discectomy outcomes.

Briseño MR, Phukan RD, Leonard DA, Herzog TL, Cho CH, Schwab JH, Wood KB, Bono CM, Cha TD.

Eur Spine J. 2015 Sep 12. [Epub ahead of print]

PURPOSE:

The cross-sectional study evaluates the incidence, localization, treatment, and influencing factors of back pain (BP) in Germany's elite athletes.

METHODS:

An online questionnaire was sent out to 3564 top athletes. We used the VAS to identify the intensity of BP and SPSS for statistical analyses.

RESULTS:

929 athletes responded. 514 (55.3 %) had BP within the last 12 months, mainly located in the lumbar spine (n = 293, 56.1 %). The average pain intensity was 5.75/10. Back-affecting exercise and additional burdens (e.g. at their place of work) did not increase the intensity of BP. When dividing the athletes into two groups according to the BP intensity, BP did not correlate with gender, age or BMI.

PURPOSE:

While spinal instrumentations are becoming more common, the advantages of elective spinal implant removal remain ambiguous. We hypothesized that elective implant removal of the posterior spine is beneficial.

METHODS:

A retrospective study evaluated 137 consecutive trauma patients with elective implant removal of the posterior spine. If additional cages were present, they were not removed. Primary outcomes were the change in pre- and post-operative pain, fingertip-floor distance (FFD), and Cobb angles. Some secondary outcomes consisted of complications, work disability, and pelvic incidence (PI). Different stabilization approaches and cage sizes were compared.

RESULTS:

The presence and amount of pain as well as the FFD showed significant improvement.

BACKGROUND:

Posterior laminectomy with instrumented fusion is a standard procedure for treating degenerative cervical kyphosis with stenosis (DCKS). Two major disadvantages of the surgery are adhesion of the dural membrane with significant disfiguring of cervical spine and a small fusion bed around the lateral mass. One of the advantages of laminoplasty over laminectomy is the protection of the dural membrane from adhesion through preservation of posterior bony elements. This study presents the surgical outcomes of laminoplasty, instead of laminectomy, as a decompression method applied in posterior instrumented fusion for DCKS.

METHODS:

A consecutive single center series of twenty cases between 2008 and 2011 were retrospectively reviewed.

BACKGROUND: Descriptive epidemiology of total joint replacement procedures is limited to annual procedure volumes (incidence). The prevalence of the growing number of individuals living with a total hip or total knee replacement is currently unknown. Our objective was to estimate the prevalence of total hip and total knee replacement in the United States.

METHODS: Prevalence was estimated using the counting method by combining historical incidence data from the National Hospital Discharge Survey and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Databases from 1969 to 2010 with general population census and mortality counts. We accounted for relative differences in mortality rates between those who have had total hip or knee replacement and the general population.