Data Trace Editor Jon D. Lurie INTRODUCTION Opioids have been used medicinally for thousands of years.1 Throughout that time there has been a constant tension between their ability to relieve pain and suffering and the potential for severe personal and societal harm related primarily to risks of dependency and addiction. As early as the 5th to 3rd centuries … Read more
Shanmuganathan Rajasekaran, Siddharth Aiyer, and Rishi Mugesh Kanna INTRODUCTION Management options in spondylolisthesis vary with the etiology, morphology, grade of slip and severity of dysplasia at the affected segment. While the treatment options are well defined in most situations, the optimal management of high grade spondylo listhesis has generated significant controversy.1-4 Most authors agree that … Read more
Brian L. Hollenbeck and Kevin J. McGuire INTRODUCTION Measurement of patient outcomes after surgical intervention has become an integral part of assessing hospital quality and is vital to patient’s ability to make an informed decision about spine surgery. Recent advances in outcome measurements have been made possible by the availability of large-scale databases from patient … Read more
Peter McCombe, Ashish Diwan, and Hans-Joachim Wilke INTRODUCTION Movement of the spine is important for all activities of daily living, work and leisure. Spinal movement is essential to change posture to adapt the spinal curves, particularly in the sagittal plane, to bear a load in the most energy-efficient manner. Loss of movement may also contribute … Read more
Scott Haldeman, Geoff Outerbridge, Stefan Eberspaecher, O’Dane Brady, Deborah Kopansky-Giles, Margareta Nordin, Eric L. Hurwitz, Afua Adjei-Kwayisi, and Rajani Mullerpatan Introduction World Spine Care (WSC) is a non-profit charity registered in the United States of America, Canada and United Kingdom. It was founded in 2009 out of a growing realization that spinal disorders were a significant, and often ignored, contributor to the burden of disease, not only … Read more
Shanmuganathan Rajasekaran Ganga Hospital is located in the city of Coimbatore, South India. This mid-sized city, by Indian standards, has a population of 3.5 million, and the hospital also caters to patients from a rural population of three million more. It lies in one of the most industrialized districts of Tamil Nadu and is noted … Read more
Emre Acaroglu THE RATIONALE FOR ESTABLISHING A SPINE CENTER (OF EXCELLENCE) Spine care is probably unique in regard to the diversity associated with it. For almost anyone who is not a spine surgeon, the very concept of spinal surgery raises controversial reactions, ranging from a broad smile to alarm. For health insurance providers (public or … Read more
Tamir Ailon, MD, MPH INTRODUCTION Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory arthropathy that affects multiple joints in the extremities and axial skeleton. It is characterized by joint destruction which is thought to arise from autoimmune-mediated inflammation. Attenuation of ligamentous support structures around affected joints may lead to instability. RA is commonly associated with osteopenia and … Read more
Kevin Taliaferro; Sigurd Berven INTRODUCTION Paget’s disease is a disorder of bone metabolism that results in an abnormal bone turnover and remodeling. The effect of Paget’s disease on bone leads to compromise in the strength of cancellous bone architecture and may cause pain, risk of fracture and deformity. Paget’s disease of bone most commonly is … Read more
Corinna C. Zygourakis, Darryl Lau, and Christopher P. Ames INTRODUCTION The prevalence of osteoporosis is increasing as our population ages and lifespan increases. A recent study estimated that 53.6 million older U.S. adults had osteoporosis or low bone mass in 2010.1 In conjunction with this increase is a rise in spinal fractures and spinal deformity … Read more