Although cysticercosis is the most common parasitic disease affecting the central nervous system, spinal cysticercosis is rare. A rare form of spinal cysticercosis involving the whole spinal canal is presented. A 45-year-old Korean male had a history of intracranial cysticercosis and showed progressive paraparesis. Spinal magnetic resonance scan showed multiple cysts compressing the spinal cord from C1 to L1. Three different levels (C1-2, T1-3, and T11-L1) required operation. Histopathological examination confirmed cysticercosis. The patient improved markedly after surgery.
Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neurocysticercosis/diagnosis/*pathology/surgery ; Spinal Canal/*parasitology ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate automated pressure-controlled discography (APCD) findings, to calculate the elastance of intervertebral discs, and to assess the relationship between the calculated elastance and disc degeneration. METHODS: APCD was performed in 19 patients. There were a total of 49 intervertebral discs treated. Following intradiscal puncture, a dye was constantly injected and the intradiscal pressure was continuously measured. The elastance of the intervertebral disc was defined as unit change in intradiscal pressure per fractional change in injected dye volume. Disc degeneration was graded using a modified Dallas discogram scale. RESULTS: The mean elastance was 43.0 +/- 9.6 psi/mL in Grade 0, 39.5 +/- 8.3 psi/mL in Grade 1, 30.5 +/- 22.3 psi/mL in Grade 2, 30.5 +/- 22.3 psi/mL in Grade 3, 13.2 +/- 8.3 psi/mL in Grade 4 and 6.9 +/- 3.8 psi/mL in Grade 5. The elastance showed significant negative correlation with the degree of degeneration (R2 = 0.529, p = 0.000). CONCLUSION: APCD liberates the examiner from the data acquisition process during discography. This will likely improve the quality of data and the reliability of discography. Elastance could be used as an indicator of disc degeneration.
Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; Intervertebral Disc Degeneration ; Low Back Pain ; Punctures

On August 9, 2017, the government announced a policy to strengthen health insurance coverage. The main goal is to increase the health insurance coverage rate and lower the national medical expense burden by an average of 18% by 2022. This policy was proposed without consulting doctors, a major medical care provider, and raised the impression of populism. It is a concern that this policy may place an additional financial burden on the medical clinics, which are already suffering due to poor financial circumstances. Although the policy is already in progress, it is necessary to carefully review whether the government and the medical community can afford it in terms of the national healthcare financial burden and the implementation possibility of this policy. There is no disagreement on the efficient supply of qualified medical care. However, it must be a sustainable system in Korea. Simply increasing the coverage rate does not increase the quality of healthcare. This study aims to analyze the government's health insurance policy for magnetic resonance imaging tests and suggest proper countermeasures.

Chronic neck and arm pain or cervicobrachialgia commonly occurs with the degeneration of cervical spine. Authors investigated the usefulness of radiofrequency (RF) neurotomies of cervical medial branches in patients with cervicobrachialgia and analyzed the factors which can influence the treatment outcome. Demographic data, types of pain distribution, responses of double controlled blocks, electrical stimulation parameters, numbers and levels of neurotomies, and surgical outcomes were evaluated after mean follow-up of 12 months. Pain distribution pattern was not significantly correlated with the results of diagnostic blocks. Average stimulation intensity was 0.45 V, ranging from 0.3 to 0.69, to elicit pain response in cervical medial branches. The most common involvement of nerve branches was C4 (89%), followed by C5 (82%), C6 (75%), and C7 (43%). Among total of 28 patients, nineteen (68%) reported successful outcome according to outcome criteria after 6 months of followup (p=0.001), and eight (42%) of 19 patients reported complete relief (100%) of pain. Four patients showed recurrence of pain between 6 and 12 months. It was therefore concluded that cervical medial branch neurotomy is considered useful therapeutic modality for the management of cervicobrachialgia in selected patients, particularly in degenerative zygapophyseal disorders.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Back Pain/etiology/surgery ; Brachial Plexus/pathology/*surgery ; Brachial Plexus Neuritis/complications/diagnosis/*surgery ; Chronic Disease ; Electrosurgery/methods ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neck Pain/etiology/surgery ; Nerve Block/methods ; Neurosurgical Procedures/instrumentation/*methods ; Treatment Outcome

Discogenic pain is a leading cause of chronic low back pain. The authors investigated the efficacy of pressure-controlled discography to determine its role in clinical decision-making for the management of patients with discogenic pain. Pressure-controlled discography was performed in 21 patients (51 discs) with pain-provocation, followed by post-discography computerized tomography scans. Pain response was classified as positive response and negative response, and measured with visual analog scale scores. Discographic findings were graded by the modified Dallas discogram scale. Elastance, pain provocation on intradiscal pressure, pressure and volume of initial pain response, and pain response intensity were statistically analyzed. Elastance showed significant differences between Grade 0 and Grade 4 and 5. Decreased elastance with positive pain response group was a good indicator to imply that disc degeneration presumably is a pain generator. Results of pain response were well correlated with intradiscal pressure but not with the amount of injected volume. Among 31 discs of Grade 4 and 5, 74% showed negative pain response and 26% showed positive response. It was concluded that pressure-controlled discography was useful to diagnose discogenic pain and excellent guide in decision-making for spinal operations.
Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Pressure ; Pain Measurement ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Low Back Pain/*radiography ; Intervertebral Disk/*radiography ; Humans ; Female ; Aged, 80 and over ; Aged ; Adult

Lumbo-sacral junction is a transition zone between the mobile lumbar spine and immobile pelvis. Lumbosacral junction has been considered to be the most troublesome portion of the spine to be fused because of the difference in anatomical and biomechanical factors between spine and pelvis. A metastatic sacral tumor in a 57-year-old man was resected, followed by unilateral lumbo-iliac fixation across lumbosacral junction using modified Galveston technique. Rigid fixation was successfully achieved. Detailed anatomy and surgical techniques are presented.
Arthrodesis ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Pelvis ; Spine

OBJECTIVE: Few studies on the clinical spectrum of automated pressure-controlled discography (APCD)-defined positive discs have been reported to date. Thus, the present study was undertaken to analyze clinical parameters critical for diagnosis of discogenic pain and to correlate imaging findings with intradiscal pressures and pain responses in patients with APCD-positive discs. METHODS: Twenty-three patients who showed APCD-positive discs were selected for analysis. CT discogram findings and the degrees of nuclear degeneration seen on MRI were analyzed in comparison to changes of intradiscal pressure that provoked pain responses; and clinical pain patterns and dynamic factors were evaluated in relation to pain provocation. RESULTS: Low back pain (LBP), usually centralized, with diffuse leg pain was the most frequently reported pattern of pain in these patients. Overall, LBP was most commonly induced by sitting posture, however, standing was highly correlated with L5/S1 disc lesions (p < 0.01). MRI abnormalities were statistically correlated with grading of CT discogram results (p < 0.05); with most pain response observed in CT discogram Grades 3 and 4. Pain-provoking pressure was not statistically correlated with MRI grading. However, it was higher in Grade 3 than Grade 4. CONCLUSION: APCD-positive discs were demonstrated in patients reporting centralized low back pain with diffuse leg pain, aggravated by sitting and standing. MRI was helpful to assess the degree of nuclear degeneration, yet it could not guarantee exact localization of the painful discs. APCD was considered to be more useful than conventional discography for diagnosis of discogenic pain.
Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; Leg ; Low Back Pain ; Posture

OBJECTIVE: A prospective, randomized, controlled clinical study is performed to verify the effectiveness of epidural dexamethasone-soaked gelatin sponges to reduce postoperative pain following lumbar microdiscectomy. METHODS: Twenty-three patients (10 men and 13 women) undergoing lumbar microdiscectomy were included. Five pieces of gelatin sponge measuring 1 x 1 cm (Gelfoam; Pharmacia & Upjohn, Kalamazoo, MI, USA), soaked with either 5mg dexamethasone or an equal amount (2 mL) of saline, were left on the decompressed nerve root after unilateral hemilaminectomy, flavectomy and discectomy. RESULTS: Subjective visual analog scale(VAS) scores of leg pain in the dexamethasone group on the first, third and fifth postoperative days (2.5, 2.5, 1.7, respectively) were significantly lower than in the control group (5.0, 4.8, 3.6) ( P<0.05). No side effects related to the dexamethasone-soaked gelatin sponges were observed. CONCLUSION: The intraoperative application of dexamethasone-soaked gelatin sponges during lumbar microdiscectomy can provide effective postoperative analgesia without complications.
Analgesia ; Dexamethasone ; Diskectomy ; Gelatin* ; Humans ; Leg ; Male ; Pain, Postoperative ; Porifera* ; Prospective Studies

Familial idiopathic basal ganglia calcification(FIBGC) is an inheritable neurological condition characterized by calcium deposits in the basal ganglia and extra-basal ganglia areas. The condition manifests as parkinsonism and other variable neuropsychiatric symptoms. FIBGC is a rare condition, and its pathophysiology has not yet been fully elucidated. Here we report the results of a clinical study of two related patients diagnosed with FIBGC.
Basal Ganglia* ; Calcium ; Ganglia ; Humans ; Parkinsonian Disorders

OBJECTIVE: Brain computer interface (BCI) is one of the most promising technologies for helping people with neurological disorders. Most current BCI systems are relatively expensive and difficult to set up. Therefore, we developed a P300-based BCI system with a cheap bioamplifier and open source software. The purpose of this study was to describe the setup process of the system and preliminary experimental results. METHODS: Ten spinal cord-injured patients were recruited. We used a sixteen-channel EEG(KT88-1016, Contec, China) and BCI2000 software (Wadsworth center, NY, USA). Subjects were asked to spell a 5-character word using the P300-based BCI system with 10 minutes of training. EEG data were acquired during the experiment. After subjects spelled the word for ten trials, the spelling accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) were obtained in each patients. RESULTS: All subjects performed the experiment without difficulty. The mean accuracy was 59.4+/-22.8%. The spelling accuracy reversely correlated with the age. Younger subjects spelled with higher accuracy than older subjects (p=0.018). However, sex, injury level, time since injury and ASIA scale were not correlated with the accuracy. The mean of ITR was 2.26+/-1.22 bit/min. CONCLUSION: This study showed that a BCI system can be set up inexpensively with a low-price bioamplifier and open-source software. The spelling accuracy was moderately achieved with our system. P300-based BCI is useful in young patients, but modification is necessary in old patients who have low ability of recognition and concentration.
Asia ; Brain* ; Brain-Computer Interfaces* ; Electroencephalography ; Evoked Potentials ; Humans ; Nervous System Diseases ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord*