Comprehensive Spinal Tuberculosis Score: A Clinical Guide for the Management of Thoracolumbar Spinal Tuberculosis.

STUDY DESIGN: A newly proposed scoring tool was designed to assist in the clinical management of adult thoracolumbar spinal tuberculosis (TB). PURPOSE: To formulate a comprehensive yet simple scoring tool to guide decision-making in the management of adult thoracolumbar spinal TB. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Spine surgeons have differing consensus in defining the threshold grade for clinico-radiological parameters when deciding between operative or conservative treatment for adult thoracolumbar spinal TB. Currently, the void in decision-making from the lack of well-defined guidelines is compensated by the surgeon's experience in treating these patients. To the best of our knowledge, no scoring system holistically integrates multiple facets of spinal TB to guide clinical decision-making. METHODS: The RAND/University of California, Los Angeles appropriateness method was employed among an expert panel of 10 spine surgeons from four apex tertiary care centers. Vital characteristics that independently influenced treatment decisions in spinal TB were identified, and a scoring tool was formulated. Points were assigned for each component based on their severity. The cutoff scores to guide clinical management were determined from the receiver operating characteristic curve based on the retrospective records of 151 patients treated operatively or non-operatively with improved functional outcomes at the 1-year follow-up. RESULTS: The components of the comprehensive spinal TB score (CSTS) are pain, kyphosis angle, vertebral destruction, and neurological status. A score classification of <5.5, 5.5-6.5, and >6.5 was established to guide the patient toward conservative, conservative/ operative, and operative management, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The CSTS was designed to reflect the essential indicators of mechanical stability, neurological stability, and disease process stabilization in spinal TB. The scoring tool is devised to be practical and serve as a common language in the spine community to facilitate discussions and decision-making in thoracolumbar spinal TB. The validity, reliability, and reproducibility of this tool must be assessed through multicenter long-term studies.

Intrapancreatic autologous stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes - an experimental study.

Introduction: Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic autoimmune condition in which the pancreas makes little or no insulin leading to resultant hyperglycemia. The incidence of type 1 diabetes in India is 0.26 per 1000 children. Materials and methods: The author treated 25 patients with type 1 diabetes with autologous intrapancreatic stem cell therapy in the last 5 years. A group of 26 patients of type 1 diabetes with conventional treatment of insulin injections was put as a control group in the same period. Results: The results of the therapy group were substantially superior to the control group, which came statistically highly significant. The variable compared were weight gain, the daily requirement of insulin and its drop after therapy, the rise of C-peptide levels and drop in anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody, drop in HbA1c levels, and drop in fasting and postprandial blood sugar. Discussion: When stem cells are given intravenously, the majority are engulfed by the lungs and only a small fraction is delivered to the pancreas. When injected into the pancreas, through its arterial blood supply, due to the larger size and irregular shape of stem cells, they are retained in tissue spaces and do not escape from the venous side, thus achieving far higher concentration in the pancreas compared to the intravenous route. Conclusions: Intrapancreatic stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes is safe, affordable, and effective. It has the potential to become a viable treatment option for type 1 diabetes patients.

Stem cell therapy for type1 diabetes with transplantation of stem cells into the Omental pouch, peritoneum, and blood, experimental study.

Introduction: Type 1 diabetes is a dreadful autoimmune disease of childhood with incidence of 0.26/1000 children in India. To develop a new, cheap, and effective treatment for this disease, we invented an autologous Stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes in which stem cells are transplanted into the Omental pouch, peritoneum, and blood. The Omental pouch stem cell operation in the therapy is reported for the first time in the medical literature. Materials and methods: Last 5 years I treated 21 patients of Type 1 diabetes with autologous stem cell therapy and in the same period, a group of 26 patients of Type 1 diabetes with conventional treatment of Insulin injections was put as a control group. Blood sugar fasting and post prandial, Anti Gad antibody titer, Glycosylated Hb and C peptide levels and weight of patient and total Insulin requirement in 24 h were the variables to be measured before the therapy and after the therapy. Stem cells were harvested from patients own bone marrow and separated by density gradient method. An infusion of 20 mg/kg methylprednisolone in 100 ML normal saline given intravenously over 1 h prior to the therapy. The total average numbers of cells harvested were 7.86 × 107. One third quantity of isolated stem cells were put into the Omental pouch through no. 7 IFT, another one third into peritoneal cavity through no. 10 IFT and remaining third is given IV in 100 ml normal saline. Results: The minimum follow up was 6 months and maximum of 4 years. In the therapy group, the average weight gain after one year of therapy, daily requirement of Insulin and its drop after therapy, drop in HbA1c levels, drop in fasting and post prandial blood sugar, rise of C peptide levels and drop in Anti-GAD antibody titer were measured and was found to be statistically highly significant. The same parameters were measured in control group and was not statistically significant. There were a few side effects noted after stem cell therapy such as mild skin rash, nausea, and pain in abdomen. Discussion: In autologous bone marrow derived stem cell therapy, cells are transplanted into the Omental pouch, peritoneum, and blood. Cells transplanted in the Omental pouch get vascularized like a split skin graft. Omental surface has far less cellular immunity than blood, hence, if some of these cells get converted into Islets like cells producing Insulin, then they are less vulnerable to damage by the immune system. It means that the Omental pouch may act as a new biological pancreas producing Insulin. Stem cells injected intravenously reach the pancreases and may get differentiate into Islet like cells due to specific growth factors released by pancreas. Stem cells can reverse autoimmunity by their immunomodulatory function. Stem cells transplanted in peritoneum grow longer due to large surface area and little cellular immunity and secrete growth factors and cytokines for a long time which can rejuvenate existing Islets of Langerhans. The therapy group had substantially good results compared to the control group and the difference was statistically highly significant. Conclusions: Autologous stem cell therapy was safe, and effective for the long term for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. We need a greater number of cases and a longer follow up to make it better. The therapy creates a lot of hope for Type 1 diabetes patients as it can be easily repeated any number of times.

Urethral pull-up operation for distal and mid-penile hypospadias: a new safe method.

This case series of 51 patients (age range = 11-17 years; 30-month follow-up) describes a new modified approach to treatment of distal and mid-penile hypospadias that has fewer complications. The meatal locations were sub-coronal (51%), coronal (45%) and mid-penile (4%). Forty patients had chordee. Urethra with the corpus spongiosum was dissected off the corpus cavernosum up to the peno-scrotal junction. The distal 5 mm stenotic and avascular part of the urethral tube was excised. The elastic urethra was then stretched and sutured to form a neo-meatus. The urethra was anchored to the Buck's fascia at the glandular, sub-coronal and mid-penile levels. Meatal regression in one patient (2%), subcutaneous hematomas in two patients (4%) and wound dehiscence in two patients (4%) were the complications in the immediate postoperative period. None developed fistula, meatal stenosis or residual chordee in the 30-month follow-up.

Low-cost laparoscopy for rural areas: the flexible video laparoscope.

Diagnostic laparoscopies are a very useful diagnostic tool especially in rural areas. However, the very high costs of the current diagnostic equipment make them unavailable to most of the rural centres. We describe a low-cost laparoscope that does away with the telescope and rod lens system and offers very good quality pictures for diagnostic laparoscopy at small fraction of the cost of current laparoscopic surgical instruments.