BACKGROUND Minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) is a well-accepted procedure for the treatment of degenerative lumbar disease. However, its ability to restore lumbar lordosis has been limited. Development of expandable lordotic interbody devices has challenged this limitation, furthering the scope of minimally invasive surgery. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the radiographic and clinical effects of expandable lordotic interbody devices placed through an MIS-TLIF approach. METHODS We conducted a retrospective review of 32 1-level and 18 2-level MIS-TLIFs performed using lordotic expandable interbody devices. Lumbar radiographic measurements, Oswestry Disability Index scores (ODI), and Visual Analogue Scale scores (VAS) were obtained at preoperative, 6 wk follow up, and last follow up time points. Last follow up occurred at a mean of 11.5 ± 7.6 mo (mean ± SD). RESULTS At 6-wk follow-up, segmental lordosis, disc height, and foraminal height increased by an average of 3.4°, 6.4 mm, and 4.4 mm, respectively. Only the 2-level group showed a significant increase in lumbar lordosis of 5.8°. No significant changes occurred in sacral slope, pelvic tilt, or pelvic incidence. Average ODI and VAS decreased by −12.0 and −4.5, respectively. Postoperative lumbar lordosis inversely correlated with preoperative lordosis in patients with an initial Pelvic Incidence to Lumbar Lordosis mismatch (PI-LL) of >10°, (r = −0.5, P = .009). CONCLUSION When applied across 2-levels, MIS-TLIF using expandable lordotic interbody devices produced a significant increase in lumbar lordosis. Preoperative lumbar lordosis was found to be a predictor of postoperative lumbar lordotic change in patients with sagittal imbalance.
Background: Muscle biopsy is a common diagnostic marker for myopathy assessment; however, it has a relatively low pathologic yield of less than 60%. Additionally, both diagnostic and non-diagnostic muscle biopsies can provide guidance for treatment, i.e, provide therapeutic usefulness.Purpose: We designed a study to determine if having a documented definitive preoperative differential diagnosis would affect the pathologic yield and therapeutic usefulness of muscle biopsies for myopathy. Methods: This was a retrospective, single institution chart review of 106 consecutive muscle biopsies in adult patients, which looked at the presence or absence of a definitive preoperative differential diagnosis and relation to diagnostic yield and therapeutic usefulness of muscle biopsies. Results: Of 106 muscle biopsies, 50 biopsies (47%) had a definitive preoperative differential diagnosis, 52 biopsies (49%) returned definitive pathology, and 93 biopsies (88%) provided therapeutic information. The presence of a documented differential diagnosis increased the odds of pathologic yield by 3.73 (p-value < 0.01) and therapeutic usefulness by 3.40 (p-value 0.08). If pathology was diagnostic then the therapeutic usefulness of the biopsy was 4.54 times more likely (p-value < 0.01). Conclusion: Documentation of a definitive preoperative differential diagnosis, when pursuing muscle biopsy for myopathy, is associated with an increased pathologic diagnostic yield. Definitive pathology was associated with an increase in the therapeutic usefulness of the muscle biopsy.
The opioid epidemic is an ongoing concern in the United States and efforts to ameliorate this crisis are underway on multiple fronts. Opiate use is an important consideration for patients undergoing lumbar spine surgery with concurrent psychiatric diagnoses and more information is needed regarding the factors involved in these patients. That information may help guide opioid prescribing practices for individual patients with certain psychiatric conditions that are undergoing these procedures. This study was done to identify psychiatric conditions that are associated with preoperative and postoperative opioid use in this cohort of veteran patients undergoing elective lumbar spine surgery. A 3 month preoperative and 3 month postoperative chart review was conducted on 25 patients per year who underwent elective lumbar spine surgery over a 16-year period at the Veterans Affairs Nebraska-Western Iowa Healthcare Center (n = 376 after exclusion criteria applied). The association between psychiatric comorbidities and use of opioids during the 90-day period after surgery was assessed using a linear model that adjusted for surgical type, opioid use prior to surgery, and other relevant comorbidities. Patients are more likely to use opioids preoperatively if they have major depression (P = .02), hepatitis C (P = .01), or musculoskeletal disorders (P = .04). PTSD (P = .02) and lumbar fusion surgery (P < .0001) are associated with increased postoperative use, after adjusting for preoperative use and other comorbidities. Certain psychiatric comorbidities are significantly correlated with opioid use for this cohort of lumbar spine surgery patients in the preoperative and postoperative periods. Awareness of an individual's psychiatric comorbidity burden may help guide opioid prescription use.
OBJECTIVEThe Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has pushed for more frequent and comprehensive feedback for residents during their training, but there is scant evidence for how neurosurgery residents view the current feedback system as it applies to providing information for self-improvement and goal formation. The authors sought to assess neurosurgery resident and staff perceptions of the current resident feedback system in providing specific, meaningful, achievable, realistic, and timely (SMART) goals. The authors then created a pilot project to improve the most unfavorably viewed aspect of the feedback system.METHODSThe authors conducted an anonymous survey of neurosurgery residents and staff at an academic medical institution to assess SMART goals for resident feedback and used the results to create a pilot intervention to address the most unfavorably viewed aspect of the feedback system. The authors then conducted a postintervention survey to see if perceptions had improved for the target of the intervention.RESULTSNeurosurgery residents and staff completed an anonymous online survey, for which the results indicated that resident feedback was not occurring in a timely manner. The authors created a simple anonymous feedback form. The form was distributed monthly to neurosurgery residents, neurosurgical staff, and nurses, and the results were reported monthly to each resident for 6 months. A postintervention survey was then administered, and the results indicated that the opinions of the neurosurgery residents and staff on the timeliness of resident feedback had changed from a negative to a nonnegative opinion (p = 0.01).CONCLUSIONSThe required ACGME feedback methods may not be providing adequate feedback for goal formation for self-improvement for neurosurgery residents. Simple interventions, such as anonymous feedback questionnaires, can improve neurosurgery resident and staff perception of feedback to residents for self-improvement and goal formation.
IntroductionRequests for muscle biopsy for evaluation of myopathy originate from a variety of different specialties. It is unknown whether the specialty of the referring service affects the likelihood of diagnostic biopsy or the therapeutic usefulness of a biopsy.MethodsWe reviewed 106 consecutive muscle biopsies requested by healthcare providers in neurology, rheumatology, family medicine, oncology, and gastroenterology. We tested for an association between referring service and whether the biopsy yielded a definitive pathology result or provided therapeutically useful results.ResultsHalf of the biopsies (49%) returned definitive pathology and 88% of the biopsies provided information that contributed to therapeutic decisions. The diagnostic yield for muscle biopsies referred by different services was not statistically significant (p-value 0.1344) nor was the therapeutic yield statistically significant for muscle biopsies referred by different services (p-value 0.5525).DiscussionThe specialty of the service that requests a muscle biopsy does not influence the likelihood of obtaining a definitive pathological diagnosis or therapeutically useful information. Other factors may be more important in determining the likelihood of obtaining a clinically useful biopsy result.
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