osseous stenosis of the neural canal

STUDY DESIGN: This was a retrospective clinical series. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate radiologic changes in central spinal canal dimensions following minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) with placement of a static or an expandable interbody device. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: MIS-TLIF is used to treat lumbar degenerative diseases and low-grade spondylolisthesis. MIS-TLIF enables direct and indirect decompression of lumbar spinal stenosis, with patients experiencing relief from radiculopathy and neurogenic claudication...

Ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) is a relatively rare disorder characterized by elongation of the posterior longitudinal ligament followed by the progressive development of ectopic osseous tissue along the ligament. OPLL is most commonly reported in the cervical spine, with fewer reported cases of thoracic or lumbar OPLL. The incidence of OPLL is high in east Asian populations with a much lower incidence in the United States. In this case report and review, we present the case of a 44-year-old female who was admitted to the hospital with a one-year history of progressive bilateral lower extremity weakness...

A 10-year-old female with neurofibromatosis type 1 and severe dystrophic scoliosis presented with a two-month history of difficulty ambulating due to low back pain. The patient did not have any neurological symptoms. MRI of the thoracolumbar spine demonstrated subluxation of the right posterior tenth and eleventh ribs through their respective neural foramina, with mild mass effect on the thecal sac without abnormal cord signal or cord compression. Groups of neurofibromas were present along the right ribs and paravertebral soft tissues around these levels...

We describe a technique for microsurgical widening of the nerve root canal in the lumbosacral spine. We also report our early results in 31 patients (19 men and 12 women; average follow-up, 3.2 years) with such foraminal stenosis but without osseous defects in the pars interarticularis and/or spondylolisthesis. The affected nerve root was decompressed by interlaminar medial foraminotomy followed by lateral laminotomy and foraminotomy using a microsurgical technique. The procedure aimed at preserving bony continuity of the pars interarticularis and segmental motion...

An evaluation of forty-five athletes who had had an episode of transient neurapraxia of the cervical spinal cord revealed a consistent finding of developmental narrowing of the cervical spinal canal. The purpose of the present epidemiological study was to determine the relationship, if any, between a developmentally narrowed cervical canal and reversible and irreversible injury of the cervical cord with use of various cohorts of football players as well as a large control group. Cohort I comprised college football players who were asymptomatic and had no known history of transient neurapraxia of the cervical cord...

Diagnostic imaging is a dynamic field that has taken a quantum leap over the past several years with the advent of MRI. Accordingly, it is integral that the sports medicine clinician be well acquainted with the sundry imaging modalities at his or her disposal, and be able to choose the appropriate study or studies that will provide the most useful and accurate information. Conventional radiography should be the first study performed in every athlete with sports-related injury to the spine. If radiography reveals evidence of spondylolysis with or without spondylolisthesis, MRI would be an extremely helpful adjunct for evaluation of the disc spaces, nerve roots, and neural foramina...

In 30%-40% of the patients who are operated on for herniation of lumbar discs, osseous stenosis plays a certain role. However, only in one-third of them are special operative measures such as laminectomy necessary with or without additional lumbar fusion. When spondylodesis is carried out after laminectomy it is often combined with metal implant, which can drastically reduce the time a patient requires perioperative treatment. In younger patients showing typical signs of nerve root compression due to osseous stenosis of lateral recess, only segmental decompression in the form of foraminotomy is done...

In a consecutive series of 600 patients scanned by CT for various spinal diseases, those with low back and sciatic pain without disc herniation were selected for study. The causes proved to be joint facet degeneration (32 cases), stenosis of the neural foramina (13 cases), stenosis of the spinal canal (13 cases), lateral recess stenosis (6 cases) and spondylolisthesis (6 cases). The predominance of joint facet pathology as the underlying cause of low back and sciatic pain in the absence of disc herniation is confirmed...

The introduction of new techniques to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) armamentarium is beginning to provide an MRI examination that overcomes many of the disadvantages noted in earlier reports. An analysis of the various advantages and disadvantages of MRI, plain film myelography, and computed tomographic myelography points to a potential revision of the sequence of diagnostic studies and the workup of cervical degenerative disease. MRI might now be the appropriate first test for the evaluation of the cervical spine in a patient with symptoms referable to degenerative disease when therapeutic intervention is considered...