The combined Papineau and Ilizarov bone transport technique with negative-pressure wound closure provides for successful eradication of the infection, reconstruction of the bone defect, and soft-tissue closure. A single-stage surgical treatment is feasible, without any complications.

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Butterfly vertebra is a rare congenital malformation of the spine, which is usually reported in the literature as an isolated finding. We describe a 40-year-old woman that presented to our emergency department with back pain and sciatica. Initial radiological evaluation revealed an incidental finding of a L4 butterfly vertebra in the anteroposterior and lateral view radiographs. The patient presented with no neurological deficit. This rare congenital anomaly is usually asymptomatic, and awareness of its non-traumatic nature is critical in order to establish a correct diagnosis. Further evaluation of the patient is necessary to exclude pathologic fracture, infection, or associated vertebral anomalies and syndromes, such as Alagille, Jarcho-Levin, Crouzon, and Pfeiffer syndromes. Furthermore, in the emergency setting, awareness of this entity is needed so that a correct diagnosis can be established.

Objective: Osteoid osteoma (OO) accounts for approximately 10-12% of all benign bone tumours and 3% of all bone tumours. Spinal involvement appears in 10-25% of all cases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of CT-guided radiofrequency (RF) ablation in the treatment of spinal OOs and report our experience. Methods: 13 patients suffering from spinal OO and treated at the authors' institution using CT-guided RF ablation were retrospectively evaluated. The RF probe was introduced through a 11-G Jamshidi® needle, and the lesion was heated at 90°C for 6 min.

The Chance fracture represents a spinal lesion caused by a flexion-distraction injury pattern. We describe a rare case of a male driver admitted at the Emergencies of our Institution, level A Trauma center. The was involved in an automobile accident without wearing a seatbelt. Radiological findings of plain radiography and computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a horizontal fracture extending across the vertebral body to the posterior elements with loss of vertebral height at the anterior aspect of T12. Based on these findings, the diagnosis of a T12 Chance fracture was established. The patient was treated conservatively with a thoracolumbar orthosis, without any subsequent disabilities. Although Chance fractures are rare lesions, they should always be considered in spinal injuries, even in cases of motor-vehicle accidents where no seatbelt is used.

Objective: Osteoid osteoma (OO) accounts for approximately 10-12% of all benign bone tumours and 3% of all bone tumours. Spinal involvement appears in 10-25% of all cases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of CT-guided radiofrequency (RF) ablation in the treatment of spinal OOs and report our experience. Methods: 13 patients suffering from spinal OO and treated at the authors' institution using CT-guided RF ablation were retrospectively evaluated. The RF probe was introduced through a 11-G Jamshidi® needle, and the lesion was heated at 90°C for 6 min.

Over the past decade Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (WCE) technology has become a very useful tool for diagnosing diseases within the human digestive tract. Using WCE physicians can examine the digestive tract in a minimum invasive way searching for pathological abnormalities such as bleeding, polyps, ulcers and Crohn's disease. In order for WCE to be more effective for gastroenterologists, engineers have developed software methods to automatically detect these diseases at high successful rate. Using proposed a synergistic methodology for automatic discovering polyps (protrusions) and ulcers in WCE video frames, a data mining approach is used that offers useful information about ulcers, polyps and normal tissues and their visual similarities. Finally, results of the methodology are given and statistical comparisons are also presented relevant to other works.