It is extremely difficult to interpret radiographic lumbar posterolateral fusion success. Such an assessment needs to be performed by use of a detailed radiographic classification system. The classification system presented here revealed good interobserver and intraobserver agreement, both with and without instrumentation. The classification showed acceptable reliability and may be one way to improve interstudy and intrastudy correlation of radiologic outcomes after posterolateral spinal fusion. Instrumentation did not influence reproducibility but may result in slightly underestimated fusion rates.
Lumbar posterolateral fusion with pedicle screw fixation increases the operation time, blood loss, and reoperation rate, and leads to a significant risk of nerve injury. The functional outcome improves significantly with high patient satisfaction, with or without instrumentation. No significant differences were observed between the two groups in functional outcome and fusion rate. The only gain in functional outcome from instrumentation was found in the daily activity category in patients with supplementary neural decompression. The results of this study do not justify the general use of pedicle screw fixation alone as an adjunct to posterolateral lumbar fusion.
Diagnostic arthroscopy was performed in 40 consecutive patients under 16 years of age with hemarthrosis of the knee. The age of the patients ranged from 10 to 15 years, median 13.7 years. Eighteen patients had ruptures of the anterior cruciate ligament; seven ruptures were partial. Only two cases of fractures of the tibial spine were encountered. Seven patients had midsubstance tears of the anterior cruciate ligament. Eleven patients had patellar dislocations. Six patients had minimal capsular disruptions as the cause of hemarthrosis. Three patients had osteochondritis dissecans of the knee and two patients had isolated ruptures of the medial collateral ligament. Twenty-eight of the patients underwent some form of operative repair. The clinical diagnosis was confirmed at arthroscopy in 17 of the 40 cases. The appearance of hemarthrosis of the knee usually signifies a serious knee injury and should be treated with the same importance as in adults, and as a rule arthroscopy should be carried out.
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