Solitary lymphangioma of the spine.

STUDY DESIGN: This is a report of a solitary lymphangioma in a vertebral body treated by excision and autogenous bone grafting. The literature for solitary lymphangioma is reviewed. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: An adolescent patient presented with low back pain and an abdominal mass associated with a radiographic lytic process in the L3 vertebral body. Direct continuity of the mass with the L3 body and without involvement of neural elements was demonstrated by computed tomography. Excision of the cystic mass and L3 body with subsequent reconstruction using cancellous iliac autograft was completed. At 20 months' follow-up, the patient was without pain and without evidence of recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first reported case of the occurrence of this entity in the vertebral body. Excision and bone grafting is accepted treatment. Careful observation for local recurrence is needed.

C5-6 cervical dislocation resulting from improper seat belt use.

Motorists may improperly use the diagonal shoulder belt of newer passive restraint systems by failing to use the lap belt. An unusual case of patient who did not wear a lap belt and who sustained a cervical C5-6 distraction injury resulting in quadriplegia is reported. Emergency physicians should be aware of this injury mechanism and should reinforce proper passive restraint use.

Principles of clinical medicine: an interdisciplinary integrated 2-year longitudinal course.

In keeping with the Report of the Panel on the General Professional Education of the Physician (Association of American Medical Colleges 1984), Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) School of Medicine is in the midst of revising its curriculum. After a 4-year process, the Curriculum Committee mandated development of the Principles of Clinical Medicine course, a 2-year longitudinal course integrating input from both basic and clinical science departments. We describe the steps leading to the course's implementation, its administrative and organizational structure, the evaluation of student performance, teacher training, course curriculum, and the use of interdisciplinary teaching. This course embodies many of the changes called for in the AAMC Report and serves as a model for interdisciplinary education.

Use of a group objective structured clinical examination with first-year medical students.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the implementation of a quarterly group objective structured clinical examination (GOSCE) to assess the patient-evaluation abilities of a medical school class. METHOD: The study subjects were 94 first-year students participating in the Principles of Clinical Medicine course at the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine in 1992-93. To create the GOSCE, the authors modified the format of the quarterly objective structured clinical examination by making each standardized-patient station the site of an interaction between a standardized patient and a group of four or five students. The GOSCE's reliability, content and face validity, and expense were evaluated. Student feedback was obtained using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: Performances varied both among the five stations of the GOSCE and among the 23 student groups: the mean percentage of items performed correctly per station was 83%, with a range of 73-97%. The reliability of the GOSCE's stations was low, with intraclass correlations during the three consecutive quarters of .29, .05, and .12. Despite no prior experience with this type of testing, the students' mean rating of the GOSCE's appropriateness was 3.8 (on a Likert scale of 1, poor, to 5, excellent), compared with 2.5 for the appropriateness of the written examination also used for quarterly assessment. The expense of the GOSCE was much less than the costs reported for the OSCE format. CONCLUSION: The use of the quarterly GOSCE favorably influenced the students, faculty, and curriculum. The GOSCE format made possible the assessment of a large number of students' abilities, without the time and expense needed to evaluate students individually.

A technique for cervical laminoplasty using mini plates.

Accepted laminoplasty techniques may limit one's ability to decompress cervical nerve roots and the constructs may fail leading to restenosis of the cervical spinal canal. A simple laminoplasty technique has been developed using titanium miniplates that permits adequate decompression of the cervical spinal cord and bilateral cervical nerve roots, and successfully reconstructs an enlarged rigid spinal canal.

Pelvic osteotomy for bladder exstrophy.

Twenty-five patients with bladder exstrophy underwent pelvic osteotomy at or before initial bladder closure and anterior abdominal repair. Ten patients underwent bilateral iliac osteotomies before 1977. An alternative procedure consisting of bilateral superior pubic ramotomies has been used in 15 patients since 1977. In all patients, successful tension-free closure of the abdomen was achieved. Long-term follow-up of these two groups of patients shows no difference in the degree of pubic diastasis, which was asymptomatic. Posterior iliac osteotomy requires two additional incisions, longer operative time, and postoperative immobilization. We therefore recommend bilateral superior pubic ramotomy as an alternative procedure in initial reconstruction of the anterior abdomen in patients with bladder exstrophy.

Non-contiguous spinal fractures.

A retrospective review of 817 spinal fracture patients revealed a 6.4% (52/817) incidence of non-contiguous spine fractures. Seventy-three per cent of the non-contiguous injuries were comprised of combinations of injuries in the cervical and thoracic regions or in the thoracic and lumbar regions. Forty-five per cent of fractures were a combination of compression fractures, 40% a combination of a compression fracture and a major spine fracture (i.e., one more likely to cause a neurologic deficit), and 15% a combination of major fractures.

Dural tears associated with lumbar burst fractures.

A retrospective review of 817 spinal fracture patients revealed a 7.7% (20 of 258) incidence of dural tears in surgically treated patients. Dural tears were most common in the lumbar burst fractures (10 of 85). Twenty-five percent of patients with lumbar spine burst fractures and a neurologic deficit had a dural tear requiring repair. Eighty-six percent of patients with lumbar burst injuries and dural tears had a neurologic deficit. An initial posterior approach with inspection of the dura and stabilization of the fracture is recommended when treating lumbar burst fractures with a neural deficit.