Frequency of Vertebral Endplate Modic Changes in Patients with Unstable Lumbar Spine and Its Effect on Surgical Outcome.

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. PURPOSE: In this study, we investigated the frequency of vertebral endplate Modic changes (MCs) and their effects on surgical outcomes in patients with unstable lumbar spines. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Signal changes in endplates have been classified into three types by Modic. The prognostic role of MCs has been investigated in various spinal disorders. METHODS: A series of 70 patients with clinical and radiographic unstable lumbar spine were included in the study. Endplate signal intensity was determined according to Modic classification. All patients underwent instrumented posterolateral fusion. Functional evaluation was made using the visual analog scale (VAS) and Oswestry disability index (ODI). RESULTS: Eighteen patients (26%) had normal endplate intensity, 31 patients (44%) had MC type I, 20 patients (28%) had MC type II, and one patient (1.4%) had MC type III. Pain level VAS and ODI decreased significantly from the preoperative evaluation to the six-month and one-year postoperative evaluations. The surgical outcome (VAS and ODI) was not significantly different between the various types of MC. CONCLUSIONS: Posterolateral fusion is an effective treatment in patients with unstable lumbar spines. MC do not have a significant effect on the surgical outcome of these patients.

Brain tumors in infants.

BACKGROUND: Brain tumors in infants have different clinical presentations, anatomical distribution, histopathological diagnosis, and clinical prognosis compared with older children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was done in patients <12 months old who were operated on for primary brain tumor in Children's Hospital Medical Center since 2008 to 2014. RESULTS: Thirty-one infants, 20 males and 11 females, with the mean age of 7.13 months (0.5-12) were enrolled. There were 16 supratentorial and 15 infratentorial tumors. The presenting symptoms included increased head circumference (16); bulge fontanel (15); vomiting (15); developmental regression (11); sunset eye (7); seizure (4); loss of consciousness (4); irritability (3); nystagmus (2); visual loss (2); hemiparesis (2); torticollis (2); VI palsy (3); VII, IX, X nerve palsy (each 2); and ptosis (1). Gross total and subtotal resection were performed in 19 and 11 cases, respectively. Fourteen patients needed external ventricular drainage in the perioperative period, from whom four infants required a ventriculoperitoneal shunt. One patient underwent ventriculoperitoneal shunting without tumor resection. The most common histological diagnoses were primitive neuroectodermal tumor (7), followed by anaplastic ependymoma (6) and grade II ependymoma. The rate of 30-day mortality was 19.3%. Eighteen patients are now well-controlled with or without adjuvant therapy (overall survival; 58%), from whom 13 cases are tumor free (disease free survival; 41.9%), 3 cases have residual masses with fixed or decreased size (progression-free survival; 9.6%), and 2 cases are still on chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: Brain tumors in infants should be treated with surgical resection, followed by chemotherapy when necessary.

Trauma research in Iran: a report of the Sina Trauma Data Bank.

BACKGROUND: Injuries are a major health problem in developing countries. Recently, the occurrence of injuries and those related to mortality have increased dramatically in Iran. We have conducted this study to report domestic research publications in the field of trauma from 2000 to 2006 in Iran. METHODS: The contents of 128 biomedical journals were analyzed. Sina Trauma Data Bank (STDB) was selected as an indicator of trauma related articles that have been published in Iranian biomedical journals. RESULTS: The number of trauma related articles in Iran increased during the seven year period (2000 - 2006), but the percentage of total publications was not significantly different. The mean number of authors per article was 2.7+1.3 (1 to 12) and all first authors were Iranian. Females constituted 15.4% (n=156) of first authors. Original articles were the most frequently published articles (n=871; 86.2%). Treatment of injuries and ensuing complications were the most common topics (42%) followed by war injuries (14.1%). Traffic accidents, as the leading cause of trauma death in Iran, were investigated in 27 (2.7%) articles. CONCLUSION: According to our results, it seems that more attention from researchers and health-policy makers towards trauma is necessary in our country. In addition, publishing a journal with the main theme of injury and trauma could be an effective means for increasing the proportion of trauma related articles.

Fall-related injuries in the elderly in Tehran.

During 13 months of data gathering, all injury-related information concerning trauma patients was gathered according to International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10). The severity of the injury was calculated according to Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS-90) in six major university hospitals in Tehran. Twelve percent of 8000 hospitalised trauma patients were elderly (65 years or older) and 70% of them (675 patients) had suffered from fall-related injuries. Falling on the ground and falling on stairs were the most common kinds of injury (with 462 (68%) and 122 (18%) cases, respectively). In the home and on the street were the most common sites of fall occurrence (with 520 cases (77%) and 91 cases (13.5%), respectively). After adjustment for the gender, kind of fall and Injury Severity Score, it was shown that the elderly were more prone to death than their younger counterparts (odds ratio=5.8, 95% CI for odds ratio: 2.3-7.2), but there was no significant difference in mortality rate between elderly men and women. Further studies are needed to evaluate personal and environmental risk factors for falls in our population. Furthermore, significantly higher mortality rate in our elderly trauma victims necessitates prudent attention to elderly trauma care in our teaching hospitals.