Archives: Articles

Negative effects of smoking, workers’ compensation, and litigation on pain/disability scores for spine patients.

This study is a retrospective review of two institutions that collected patient information from 2000 to 2008.  13,704 consecutive patients  with spinal disorder complaints answered questions regarding smoking status,  ODI, VAS and litigation or workers compensation status. No other information was collected.  There is no followup to these patients.   The overall demographic data breaks […]

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Healthy lifestyle behavior and risk of long duration troublesome neck pain or low back pain among men and women: results from the Stockholm Public Health Cohort.

This Karolinska Institute of Stockholm study  utilized the Stockholm Public Health Cohort.  The Stockholm County Council established public health surveys of the Swedish population and has participants filled in baseline questions that addressed various aspects of health,  lifestyle and social outcomes. The authors used data sets from respondents from 2006, between the ages of 18 […]

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Aging of the Cervical Spine in Healthy Volunteers A 10-Year Longitudinal Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Prospective longitudinal study.  Mean follow-up.  It is 11.7 + .8 years 223 subjects  of original 497 asymtomatic volunteers from asymptomatic volunteers from 1993 to 1996 returned for a repeat MRI more than 10 years after the original MRI.    44.9% Mean age at the time of initial imaging was 39.0 ± 15 years.  At the time […]

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Microsurgical Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Report of 158 Patients with a Mean Followup of More Than 32 Years.

This is a retrospective review of reported outcomes of 158 patients,  with a minimum of 25 years followup after microsurgical discectomy of a lumbar herniated disc. The Authors conclude that microsurgical discectomy surgery is an effective technique with high patient satisfaction. This is an important retrospective long term view on microdiscectomy, and certainly is consistent […]

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Modic changes of the lumbar spine: prevalence, risk factors, and association with disc degeneration and low back pain in a large-scale population-based cohort.

Mok et al. This recently published, population based cross sectional study by Mok et al, looked at the prevalence and risk factors associated with Modic changes in the lumbar spine among Southern Chinese subjects. This is one of the largest studies in regards to the number of patients included (N=2449) looking at Modic changes.   One […]

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The natural history of spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis.

This is a classic Spine Study looking at the natural history of spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis in a population of 500 first grade students in a small community bordering New York and Pennsylvania. The initial enrollment period was 1954 to 1957.  The inclusion criteria was that the first grader had parental permission and attended one of […]

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