Mark Hadley, Alabama, USA, talks to Spinal News International about new guidelines from the Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS)/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) on the management of acute cervical spine and spinal cord injuries. [read more]
Paul Willems, Maastricht University Medical Center, The Netherlands, reviews the evidence for tests that predict outcome following spinal fusion surgery in patients with chronic low back pain, and outlines the evidence that is required to develop clinical guidelines in this clinical setting. [read more]
James Yue, programme chair for the annual meeting of the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery (ISASS12; 20–23 March 2012, Barcelona, Spain) talks to Spinal News International about advances in spinal surgery and the themes of ISASS12. [read more]
Alan Crockard and David Choi review the effect of surgery on quality of life in patients with spinal epidural metastases. Crockard also gave a talk about this topic at IMAST. [read more]
The Whitecloud Awards honour the best clinical and scientific papers at IMAST. This year’s winners, Jacob Buchowski and Vishal Sarwahi, talk to Spinal News International about their award-winning papers. [read more]
Greg Anderson, orthopaedic surgeon, Philadelphia, USA, is chairing a hands-on course on minimally invasive surgery at the upcoming 26th annual meeting of the North American Spine Society (NASS) in Chicago, USA, he shared with Spinal News International his views on the evidence to support the use of minimally invasive spinal surgery, the reluctance from some surgeons to use less-invasive techniques and the skills needed to become proficient in these techniques. [read more]
Lawrence Lenke, the surgeon behind the Lenke system of classification, tells Spinal News International how one of the most feared complications of spinal deformity surgery is lower extremity paralysis and how surgeons have to thoroughly prepare pre-operatively to identify patients who are high-risk. [read more]
Jeffrey Wang spoke to Spinal News International about the latest developments in biologics, off-label use of rhBMP2 and interesting research findings which emerged from the Global Spine Congress, recently held in Barcelona, Spain. [read more]
Alexis Kelekis and Dimitrios Filippiadis spoke to Spinal News about how quantitative discomanometry might serve as useful tool for patient selection in choosing the appropriate percutaneous therapy. [read more]
Spinal surgery in the elderly is correlated with high complication rates depending mostly on cardiac function and the status of the immune system. Marco GA Teli recommends a multidisciplinary approach. [read more]
