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Background@#Low back pain secondary to discopathy is a common pain disorder.Multiple minimally invasive therapeutic modalities have been proposed; however, to date no study has compared percutaneous laser disc decompression (PLDD) with intradiscal injection of radiopaque gelified ethanol (DiscoGel® ). We are introducing the first study on patient-reported outcomes of DiscoGel® vs. PLDD for radiculopathy. @*Methods@#Seventy-two patients were randomly selected from either a previous strategy of PLDD or DiscoGel® , which had been performed in our center during 2016-2017. Participants were asked about their numeric rating scale (NRS) scores, Oswestry disability index (ODI) scores, and progression to secondary treatment. @*Results@#The mean NRS scores in the total cohort before intervention was 8.0, and was reduced to 4.3 in the DiscoGel® group and 4.2 in the PLDD group after 12 months, which was statistically significant. The mean ODI score before intervention was 81.25% which was reduced to 41.14% in the DiscoGel® group and 52.86% in the PLDD group after 12 months, which was statistically significant. Between-group comparison of NRS scores after two follow-ups were not statistically different (P = 0.62) but the ODI score in DiscoGel® was statistically lower (P = 0.001). Six cases (16.67%) from each group reported undergoing surgery after the follow-up period which was not statistically different. @*Conclusions@#Both techniques were equivalent in pain reduction but DiscoGel®had a greater effect on decreasing disability after 12 months, although the rate of progression to secondary treatments and/or surgery was almost equal in the two groups.
RESUMO
Approximately 4% of the world's population experience one or more febrile seizures during their lifetime, and 0.5-1% of the population has active epilepsy. Less than one-third of the reported seizures are categorized as epilepsy. The cause of established epilepsy is important in determining the treatment and prognosis. We studied 389 cases of documented epilepsy in children aged 2 months to 18 years who visited the hospital for neurologic examination during 2005-2010.Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was performed for categorical variables. The most common age for the first seizure was below 2 years, and the most common type of epilepsy was generalized tonicclonic seizure. Electroencephalography [EEG] showed an epileptic pattern in 60%, 29.8%, and 51% of the patients with idiopathic, symptomatic, and cryptogenic epilepsy, respectively. This pattern was significantly different among these 3 categories of epilepsy. The most common type of seizure was cryptogenic; however, in most industrialized countries, idiopathic epilepsies were more frequent. With respect to the age and sex of patients, the prevalence of epilepsy in southern Iran is not so much different from that of patients in other parts of the world. As to generalized or partial epilepsy, there are different reports from different part of the world; however, generalized tonicclonic seizures were more common in our area