OBJECTS: There was a trend to perform fusion and instrumentation in spinal stenosis surgery, because of extensive decompression and instability. However, the introduction of microscope in spine operation can minimize the range of excision of anatomical structure and reduced the decompressin level in the multiple lesions and the incidence of spinal fusion. The purpose of this study were to assess the outcome of this procedure in 3 years follow up and to identify the clinical features of the patients and technical aspects of the operation that were associated with a poor outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-one patients were identified as having had a microscopic decompression without arthrodesis, for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis over 60 years or their who had osteoporosis with Saville's index 2 or higher. The follow up period was more than 3 years. The clinical results was evaluated by Kim's criteria. RESULTS: Eleven cases were above good results in two levels involved 14 cases, 2 cases above good results in three levels involved 5 cases and 1 case above good results in four levels involved 2 cases. In the cases of affected duration, 7 cases are less than 1 year or more than 5 years each 6 cases and 2 cases were above good results by the criteria. We concluded that the long-term outcome of decompressive surgery in the elderly is good; it does not differ from that reported for younger patients . CONCLUSIONS: Selective microscopic decompression is one of the effective method for the elderly patients or patients with osteoporosis in addition to multiple stenotic lesions.
Aged ; Arthrodesis ; Decompression* ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Osteoporosis* ; Spinal Fusion ; Spinal Stenosis* ; Spine

No abstract available.
Angiocardiography* ; Contrast Media* ; Electrolytes* ; Osmolar Concentration* ; Plasma* ; Renin*

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory*

No abstract available.
Immunoglobulins* ; Tetanus Toxoid* ; Tetanus* ; Vaccination*

No abstract available.
Intervertebral Disc* ; Retrospective Studies*

No abstract available.
Female ; Humans ; Placental Extracts* ; Pregnant Women*

No abstract available.
Muscular Dystrophy, Oculopharyngeal*

The classification of thoracolumbar spinal injuries has been based on morphological criteria, mechanism or both. Recently Denis and Macfee insisted no the middle column of the spine but their classification is useful as a morphologic description. Especially, the classification and decision of treatment are difficult in the burst fracture. So we have applied the new classification described by Gertzbein that considers the morphologic patterns and mechanism of injury and compared with another classifications. We studied 28 cases of the thoracolumbar burst fracture who were treated and followed up at Wonkwang university hospital from May, 1988 to March, 1992. We classified burst fracture according to the three kind of classifications and CT finding. 1. The burst fracture associated with flexion-distraction injury was revealed 5 cases(about 18%). 2. In the treatment, Type A injuries requires the use of distractive and type B requires compressive forces in the correcting the deformity.
Classification ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Spinal Injuries ; Spine

No abstract available.
Animals ; Locomotion* ; Rats* ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord*

Skip lesion is not uncommon feature in osteosarcoma and considered to be importantly associated with poor prognosis factor, and thus, should be excised with the main mass. The accurate pre-operative evaluation of the intramedullary extent of osteosarcoma is essential, because it determines the level of bone resection. Among the reliable detection methods, bone scan has a drawback of high rate of false negative results and regional MRI has a difficulty to cover the whole involved lesions without clinical suspicion. The authors report a case of osteosarcoma of the distal femur with a proximal skip lesion that was not detected by either regional MR imaging or by bone scan, but which was visualized by FDG-PET/CT.
Complement System Proteins ; Femur ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Osteosarcoma ; Prognosis