Treating back problems, one of the most bothersome medical problems, cost Americans more than $30 billion in 2007- up from $16 billion in 1997 (in 2007 dollars), according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality…
Tags: Quality, healthcare, Problems, price, medical problemsJul 29
Treating back problems, one of the most bothersome medical problems, cost Americans more than $30 billion in 2007- up from $16 billion in 1997 (in 2007 dollars), according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. According to the analysis by the federal agency, in 2007 about 27 million people, or nearly 12 percent of adults age 18 and older, reported having back problems. Of those, more than 19 million sought medical treatment… (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)
Jul 29
Jul 29
BALTIMORE, July 28 (UPI) — Skipping long-held diagnostic guidelines may speed up pain relief for some with back pain, U.S. researchers say.
Pain management – United States – Health – Medicine – Medical Specialties (Source: Health News – UPI.com)
Tags: Specialties, health medicine, BALTIMORE, Treatment, comJul 29
Jul 29
Jul 29
A 48-year-old woman presented with 3 days of hoarseness and 1 week of unrelenting back pain. Her medical history was remarkable for an esophageal operation 20 years before to repair damage from caustic esophagitis. The computed tomography scan identified a large esophageal mucocele. Resection of the remaining intrathoracic esophagus was required for complete resolution of the patient’s symptoms. (Source: The Annals of Thoracic Surgery)
Jul 28
We report a previously healthy woman with back pain for 3 weeks, initially diagnosed as Escherichia coli infectious spondylitis. Because magnetic resonance imaging revealed skip lesions other than infectious spondylitis, extensive work-up disclosed monoclonal immunoglobulin G kappa and 30% plasma cells in bone marrow. The patient was treated with antibiotics for 8 weeks without recurrence in the subsequent 6 months. Although the panorama of infectious spondylitis was obvious and substantial, our case demonstrates that further investigations for underlying diseases are critical, especially when image findings are incompatible with common presentations of infectious spondylitis. (Source: APLAR Journal of Rheumatology)
Jul 28
While some guidelines recommend two diagnostic nerve blocks before radiofrequency treatment for chronic low back pain, a randomized trial showed greater success without use of the prior blocks. (Source: MedPage Today State Required CME)
Tags: success, nerve, medpage today, Blocks, low back painJul 28
Performing one or more temporary diagnostic nerve blocks to establish arthritis as the cause of back
pain before treatment with radiofrequency denervation results in unnecessary tests, delayed pain relief, and added
cost, according to a study in the August issue of Anesthesiology. (Source: Modern Medicine)
Jul 28
Intervertebral disc degeneration is considered a major source of low back pain. We therefore examined an absorbable polyglycolic acid (PGA) biomaterial for its utility to support disc tissue regeneration. Microdiscectomy for lumbar disc herniation was performed in six patients. Intervertebral disc cells were isolated and in vitro cell expansion was accomplished using human serum and FGF2. In a fibrin-hyaluronan solution, disc cells were loaded on PGA scaffolds and cultured for 2 weeks. Formation of disc tissue was documented by histological staining of the extracellular matrix as well as gene expression analysis of typical disc marker genes. The use of human serum and FGF2 ensures efficient isolation and expansion of human disc cells. During this phase, dedifferentiation of the disc cells …
Tags: human serum, hyaluronan, Engineering, vitro, nucleus pulposusJul 26
Scoliosis most commonly affects people in their late childhood to early teenage years, during the time they are experiencing their fastest time of growth. (Source: Disabled World)
Tags: diagnosis, Treatment, scoliosis, information, timeJul 26
Trent Northcutt, 42, a corporate executive in New York City, had been suffering from lower back pain and leg pain for about three years, to the point that he was “cautious about picking up the simplest thing,” he remembers. (Source: CNN.com – Health)
Tags: CNN, leg pain, new york city, thing, alternative therapiesJul 26
Slavishly following long-held guidelines for diagnosing the cause of arthritis-related back pain is resulting in excessive tests, delays in pain relief and wasteful spending of as much as $10,000 per patient, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests. Arthritis is a common cause of back pain, though difficult to precisely diagnose, experts say, because of the poor correlation between a finding of arthritis on an X-ray or MRI and the degree of a patient’s back pain… (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)
Jul 26
(Source: Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine)
Tags: medicine, aviation space, Pain, lbp, PrevalenceJul 26
Conclusions: Using current reimbursement scales, these findings suggest that proceeding to radiofrequency denervation without a diagnostic block is the most cost-effective treatment paradigm.
(C) 2010 American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc. (Source: Anesthesiology)
Jul 26
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Many people with arthritis-related back pain might be prevented from getting long-lasting pain relief under the current management guidelines, US researchers said Friday. (Source: Reuters: Health)
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Jul 26
Jul 26
An extended-release form of the pain medication tapendatol has fewer gastrointestinal side effects than oxycodone when it’s used for pain relief in people with osteoarthritis or chronic low back pain, a new study shows. (Source: WebMD Health)
Jul 26
Relying on nerve blocks to diagnose arthritis-related back pain prior to treatment may result in excessive tests, delay pain relief and increase costs, according to a study published in the August edition of Anesthesiology. (Source: Health Imaging News)
Tags: Increase, Anesthesiology, News, pain relief, delayJul 25
Slavishly following long-held guidelines for diagnosing the cause of arthritis-related back pain is resulting in excessive tests, delays in pain relief and wasteful spending of as much as $10,000 per patient, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests…
Tags: Prompt, Pain, spending, Arthritis, SlavishlyJul 22
We set out to determine whether a minimally invasive approach for one-level instrumented posterior lumbar interbody fusion reduced undesirable changes in the multifidus muscle, compared to a conventional open approach. We also investigated associations between muscle injury during surgery (creatinine kinase levels), clinical outcome and changes in the multifidus at follow-up. We studied 59 patients treated by one team of surgeons at a single institution (minimally invasive approach in 28 and conventional open approach in 31, voluntarily chosen by patients). More than 1 year postoperatively, all the patients were followed up with the visual analogue scale (VAS) and Oswestry disability index (ODI), and 16 patients from each group were evaluated using MRI. This enabled the cross-sectional are…
Jul 22
This study was an ancillary project to the Framingham Study. A sample of 3,529 participants aged 40–80 years had a CT scan performed to assess aortic calcification. 187 individuals were randomly enrolled in this study. LBP in the last 12 months was evaluated using self-report questionnaire. Density (in Hounsfield units) of multifidus and erector spinae was evaluated on CT. The prevalence of intervertebral disc narrowing, facet joint osteoarthritis (FJOA), spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis and spinal stenosis were also evaluated. We used linear regression models to examine the association of paraspinal muscles density with age, sex, BMI, LBP, and spinal degeneration features. The results show that in our study, men have higher density of paraspinal muscles than women, younger individuals h…
Tags: lbp, hounsfield units, dec 24, osteoarthritis, Dec
