Background Minimally invasive laminectomy is a very effective surgical method for treating lumbar stenosis. However, this technique can be technically difficult, especially in patients suffering from ...severe stenosis. The contralateral decompression from a unilateral approach can result in durotomy during removal of the hypertrophied ligamentum flavum. This complication can be difficult to treat through a small working channel. Objective To detail our group's operative experience with the CO2 laser and discuss our results and previous studies in the literature reporting results. Methods The CO2 laser (Omniguide, Boston, MA) was investigated in the surgical ablation of the contralateral ligamentum flavum during minimally invasive laminectomies. Forty levels have been investigated thus far. The amount of voltage needed to adequately desiccate and remove the ligamentum flavum safely as well as the effectiveness of this technique were investigated. Results The contralateral ligamentum flavum could be removed effectively using the 9 to 11 watt continuous wavelength (10,600 nanometer) power setting on the CO2 laser. Shrinkage of the contralateral ligamentum flavum facilitated its removal using a number 2 Kerrison Punch. No durotomies occurred, and the use of the laser did not significantly lengthen operative times. Conclusions The CO2 laser appears to be a useful tool in the armamentarium of instruments available to the minimally invasive spine surgeon and may help to reduce the incidence of durotomies when performing minimally invasive laminectomies.
Spine surgery as we know it has changed dramatically over the past 2 decades. More patients are undergoing minimally invasive procedures. Surgeons are becoming more comfortable with these procedures, ...and changes in technology have led to several new approaches and products to make surgery safer for patients and improve patient outcomes. As more patients undergo minimally invasive spine surgery, more long-term outcome and complications data have been collected. The authors describe the common complications associated with these minimally invasive surgical procedures and delineate management options for the spine surgeon.
Case reports and case control studies have suggested an association between chiropractic neck manipulation and cervical artery dissection (CAD), but a causal relationship has not been established. We ...evaluated the evidence related to this topic by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of published data on chiropractic manipulation and CAD.
Search terms were entered into standard search engines in a systematic fashion. The articles were reviewed by study authors, graded independently for class of evidence, and combined in a meta-analysis. The total body of evidence was evaluated according to GRADE criteria.
Our search yielded 253 articles. We identified two class II and four class III studies. There were no discrepancies among article ratings (i.e., kappa=1). The meta-analysis revealed a small association between chiropractic care and dissection (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.26-2.41). The quality of the body of evidence according to GRADE criteria was "very low."
The quality of the published literature on the relationship between chiropractic manipulation and CAD is very low. Our analysis shows a small association between chiropractic neck manipulation and cervical artery dissection. This relationship may be explained by the high risk of bias and confounding in the available studies, and in particular by the known association of neck pain with CAD and with chiropractic manipulation. There is no convincing evidence to support a causal link between chiropractic manipulation and CAD. Belief in a causal link may have significant negative consequences such as numerous episodes of litigation.
Applications of robotics to minimally invasive spine surgery have produced several benefits while sparing patients the morbidity of traditional open surgery. Minimally invasive spine surgery offers ...the advantages of less pain and less blood loss, along with quicker recovery and shorter hospital stays. The da Vinci robotic surgical system has recently been adapted to neurosurgical applications. This article details a posterior approach using a tubular retraction system in conjunction with an anterior approach using the da Vinci robot to completely remove large spinal schwannomas with intrathoracic extension. This technique is an example of a novel application of existing technology initially developed for other applications.
Two patients with large thoracic schwannomas extending into the chest cavity are reviewed. We present images and video of the combined minimally invasive approach used to completely remove the lesions without complications.
This report describes a novel neurosurgical application of an existing minimally invasive robotic surgical system.
Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) can provide valuable information regarding endoluminal morphology. We present the first description of IVUS-guided intracranial and extracranial carotid artery stent ...placement for arterial dissection. A 41-year-old female with a sudden-onset headache and blurred vision underwent a computed tomography (CT) angiogram imaging that revealed bilateral carotid artery dissections (BCAD) and a left vertebral artery dissection (VAD). Endovascular treatment (EVT) of a long segment right carotid artery dissection (CAD) was performed employing two Carotid WALLSTENT™ Monorails™ (8 x 36 mm, 10 x 31 mm) (Boston Scientific, Marlborough, MA). With the help of the IVUS, the distal stent was placed up to the petrous carotid artery, followed by the placement of the second stent in the immediate proximal location with some overlap that extended down to the carotid artery bulb. Intraoperative angiography and post-stenting IVUS revealed excellent stent placement with good resolution of the dissection and good luminal patency with pseudolumen obliteration. Stent use for intracranial circulation dissections will continue to be a favorable option given the decreased morbidity of endovascular therapy in this location. As endovascular surgeons become more facile with the use of IVUS, using it as a guide for stent placement and post-stenting confirmation will help them to ensure proper positioning and improved patency rates.
Injury to the lymphatic channels is a rare and relatively unknown complication of anterior approaches to the lumbar spine and can cause fluid to build up in the retroperitoneal space, resulting in a ...lymphocele. If they enlarge sufficiently, these collections of chyle in the abdomen can cause pain and bowel ischemia, and can compress nearby organs. The authors report 4 cases in which anterior approaches to the lumbar spine were complicated by a postoperative retroperitoneal chylous fluid collection. They describe the anatomy of the lymphatic system and pathophysiology of this disease entity, review the sparse literature on this subject, and recommend a treatment algorithm. Maintaining a high index of suspicion for this clinical entity in patients who have recently undergone an anterior approach to the thoracic or lumbar spine is vital to avoid delays in diagnosis and treatment.
To determine the diagnostic efficiency of thallium-201 single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the differentiation of ...primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) from other central nervous system processes in patients with HIV/AIDS.
Over 10 years, 68 thallium-201 SPECT scans were performed on neurologically symptomatic HIV+ patients with focal lesions on CT or MRI at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Diagnoses were then established by either autopsy, biopsy, or clinical response to anti-toxoplasmosis therapy. Patients were categorized prior to a prospective clinical reading of the SPECT scans by nuclear medicine physicians.
In our patient sample overall, the diagnostic efficiency of thallium-201 SPECT was 79%. The diagnostic accuracy of EBV PCR testing alone in a subset of 22 patients in our study that had CSF analyzed was 73%. However, when both positive EBV PCR and positive thallium-201 SPECT results were used together, the diagnostic accuracy improved to 100% based on a sample of 13 patients where EBV PCR and SPECT imaging results were concordant.
Thallium-201 SPECT has a relatively high positive predictive value with regards to the diagnosis of PCNSL, which suggests that patients with positive results could undergo empiric radiation treatment without resorting to brain biopsy. However, the predictive value can be increased by testing for CSF EBV using PCR. Alternatively, if CSF cannot be safely obtained because of mass effect, we believe that these data still suggest that empiric radiation treatment should be considered when discussing treatment options with patients with a positive thallium-201 SPECT.
Background: Endoscopically visualized spine surgery has become an essential tool that aids in identifying and treating anatomical spine pathologies that are not well demonstrated by traditional ...advanced imaging, including MRI. These pathologies may be visualized during endoscopic lumbar decompression (ELD) and categorized into primary pain generators (PPG). Identifying these PPGs provides crucial information for a successful outcome with ELD and forms the basis for our proposed personalized spine care protocol (SpineScreen). Methods: a prospective study of 412 patients from 7 endoscopic practices consisting of 207 (50.2%) males and 205 (49.8%) females with an average age of 63.67 years and an average follow-up of 69.27 months was performed to compare the durability of targeted ELD based on validated primary pain generators versus image-based open lumbar laminectomy, and minimally invasive lumbar transforaminal interbody fusion (TLIF) using Kaplan-Meier median survival calculations. The serial time was determined as the interval between index surgery and when patients were censored for additional interventional and surgical treatments for low back-related symptoms. A control group was recruited from patients referred for a surgical consultation but declined interventional and surgical treatment and continued on medical care. Control group patients were censored when they crossed over into any surgical or interventional treatment group. Results: of the 412 study patients, 206 underwent ELD (50.0%), 61 laminectomy (14.8%), and 78 (18.9%) TLIF. There were 67 patients in the control group (16.3% of 412 patients). The most common surgical levels were L4/5 (41.3%), L5/S1 (25.0%), and L4-S1 (16.3%). At two-year f/u, excellent and good Macnab outcomes were reported by 346 of the 412 study patients (84.0%). The VAS leg pain score reduction was 4.250 ± 1.691 (p < 0.001). No other treatment during the available follow-up was required in 60.7% (125/206) of the ELD, 39.9% (31/78) of the TLIF, and 19.7% (12/61 of the laminectomy patients. In control patients, only 15 of the 67 (22.4%) control patients continued with conservative care until final follow-up, all of which had fair and poor functional Macnab outcomes. In patients with Excellent Macnab outcomes, the median durability was 62 months in ELD, 43 in TLIF, and 31 months in laminectomy patients (p < 0.001). The overall survival time in control patients was eight months with a standard error of 0.942, a lower boundary of 6.154, and an upper boundary of 9.846 months. In patients with excellent Macnab outcomes, the median durability was 62 months in ELD, 43 in TLIF, and 31 months in laminectomy patients versus control patients at seven months (p < 0.001). The most common new-onset symptom for censoring was dysesthesia ELD (9.4%; 20/206), axial back pain in TLIF (25.6%;20/78), and recurrent pain in laminectomy (65.6%; 40/61) patients (p < 0.001). Transforaminal epidural steroid injections were tried in 11.7% (24/206) of ELD, 23.1% (18/78) of TLIF, and 36.1% (22/61) of the laminectomy patients. The secondary fusion rate among ELD patients was 8.8% (18/206). Among TLIF patients, the most common additional treatments were revision fusion (19.2%; 15/78) and multilevel rhizotomy (10.3%; 8/78). Common follow-up procedures in laminectomy patients included revision laminectomy (16.4%; 10/61), revision ELD (11.5%; 7/61), and multilevel rhizotomy (11.5%; 7/61). Control patients crossed over into ELD (13.4%), TLIF (13.4%), laminectomy (10.4%) and interventional treatment (40.3%) arms at high rates. Most control patients treated with spinal injections (55.5%) had excellent and good functional outcomes versus 40.7% with fair and poor (3.7%), respectively. The control patients (93.3%) who remained in medical management without surgery or interventional care (14/67) had the worst functional outcomes and were rated as fair and poor. Conclusions: clinical outcomes were more favorable with lumbar surgeries than with non-surgical control groups. Of the control patients, the crossover rate into interventional and surgical care was 40.3% and 37.2%, respectively. There are longer symptom-free intervals after targeted ELD than with TLIF or laminectomy. Additional intervention and surgical treatments are more often needed to manage new-onset postoperative symptoms in TLIF- and laminectomy compared to ELD patients. Few ELD patients will require fusion in the future. Considering the rising cost of surgical spine care, we offer SpineScreen as a simplified and less costly alternative to traditional image-based care models by focusing on primary pain generators rather than image-based criteria derived from the preoperative lumbar MRI scan.
Intracranial mucormycosis is a very unusual presentation of an infection after a depressed skull fracture due to an assault. Only sporadic cases have been reported in the literature previously. A ...30-year-old male with a traumatic brain injury following an assault, status-post debridement and elevation of a depressed skull fracture, was discharged home several weeks postoperatively. A CT scan of the head with contrast was obtained due to mental status changes and revealed an enhancing ring-shaped lesion in the right frontal lobe consistent with a brain abscess. The patient was taken to the operating room for image-guided excisional biopsy of the lesion, with pathology revealing mucormycosis.
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