Residual leg numbness after endoscopic discectomy treatment of lumbar disc herniation.

BACKGROUND: Transforaminal endoscopic discectomy was popular in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation. Previous study focuses on the leg pain of disc herniation, and little study concern the residual leg numbness after surgery. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the clinical outcomes of transforaminal endoscopic discectomy in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation with leg pain and numbness. METHODS: Patients with one level lumbar disc herniation who had transforaminal endoscopic lumbar discectomy from June 2016 to July 2019 were categorized into two groups according to the leg numbness. 293 patients initially fulfilled the study criteria, and 27 patients were lost to follow-up. Of the remaining 266 patients available for analysis, 81 cases with leg numbness and pain (A group), and 185 cases with leg pain (B). Endoscopic transforaminal lumbar discectomy was performed, and the clinical outcomes of blood loss, operation times, hospital stay days, pain (Visual Analog Scale, VAS-pain), numbness (VAS-numbness), functional disability (Oswestry Disability Index, ODI), and the disk height and intervertebral foramen height were recorded. RESULTS: All patients with pain and numbness pre-operation in group A, complain of leg numbness during or just after walking or standing not diminished after surgery in group A, and no one complain numbness after surgery in group B. The pain index and ODI score were better than preoperational in all patients (P < 0.01), and no significant difference between two groups (P > 0.05). The postoperative disk and foramen height were no significant difference compare to preoperative in all patients (P > 0.05), and no significant difference between two groups (P > 0.05). The leg numbness symptoms last longer in central disc herniation patients (10.4 ± 2.2 months) than in paracentral (6.3 ± 2.1 months) and foraminal disc herniation patients (5.6 ± 2.3 months) after surgery (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of this study, transforaminal endoscopic lumbar discectomy was effective and safe procedures in the treatment of disc herniation with leg pain and numbness. The leg numbness symptoms last longer in central disc herniation patients than in paracentral and foraminal disc herniation patients after surgery.

Determination of cephazolin, ceftazidime, and ceftriaxone distribution in nucleus pulposus.

BACKGROUND: The intervertebral disc is the largest avascular structure in the adult body and minimal blood flow through capillary beds only supplying the outer regions of the disc, which relies on the passive diffusion as a major factor for nutrition and uptake of molecules, including antibiotics. This study is to detect the serum and nucleus pulposus (NP) levels of cephazolin, ceftazidime, and ceftriaxone and to assess this antibiotic permeability into the intervertebral disc. METHODS: Forty-five consecutive patients undergoing lumbar interbody fusion surgery were divided into three groups to participate in the study. Approximately 30 min before the procedures, a bolus dose 2 g antibiotic of cephazolin, ceftazidime, and ceftriaxone was administered intravenously. The NP tissue and serum sample levels of antibiotic were assayed by high performance liquid chromatography. RESULTS: Three cases failed in the ceftriaxone group because the NP tissue contaminates the blood. Average time between antibiotic injection and tissue/blood collection was 41 min (range 27-57 min). The antibiotic concentration level of cephazolin, ceftazidime, and ceftriaxone was 144.26 ± 29.15, 127.19 ± 30.22, and 227.81 ± 51.48 µg/ml in serum and 2.33 ± 0.45, 3.74 ± 1.91, and 2.23 ± 1.86 µg/g in NP, respectively. The antibiotic penetration in to NP of cephazolin was 1.67 ± 0.44, 2.99 ± 1.99 of ceftazidime, and 1.08 ± 1.44 of ceftriaxone. CONCLUSIONS: The antibiotics of cephazolin, ceftazidime, and ceftriaxone had concentration in the NP tissue, which was higher than the stated MIC. Ceftazidime had highest penetration in to NP tissue, and ceftriaxone had the lowest penetration in to NP tissue.

Metabolomics-based study of the potential interventional effects of Xiao-Xu-Ming Decoction on cerebral ischemia/reperfusion rats.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Xiao-Xu-Ming Decoction (XXMD) is a classical Chinese medicinal compound for the treatment of ischemic stroke, which has good efficacy in clinical studies and also plays a neuroprotective role in pharmacological studies. AIM OF THE STUDY: The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential and integral interventional effects of XXMD on cerebral ischemia/reperfusion rat model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, 1H NMR metabolomics was used, combined with neurological functional assessments, cerebral infarct area measurements, and pathological staining including Nissl staining, immunofluorescence staining of NeuN and TUNEL, and immunohistochemical staining of MCT2, to analyze the metabolic effects of XXMD in the treatment of an ischemia/reperfusion rat model. RESULTS: It's observed that XXMD treatment could improve the neurological deficit scores and reduce the cerebral infarct areas on cerebral ischemia/reperfusion rat model. The pathological staining results performed that XXMD treatment could improve the decrease of Nissl bodies and the expression of NeuN and MCT2, reduce the high expression of TUNEL. In 1H NMR study, it revealed that the metabolic patterns among three experimental groups were different, the level of lactate, acetate, NAA, glutamate, and GABA were improved to varying degrees in different brain area. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicated that XXMD has positive effect on neuroprotection and improvement of metabolism targeting cerebral ischemic injury in rats, which showed great potential for ischemic stroke.

Percutaneous cervical nucleoplasty in the treatment of cervical disc herniation.

Percutaneous disc decompression procedures have been performed in the past. Various percutaneous techniques such as percutaneous discectomy, laser discectomy, and nucleoplasty have been successful. Our prospective study was directly to evaluate the results of percutaneous cervical nucleoplasty (PCN) surgery for cervical disc herniation, and illustrate the effectiveness of PCN in symptomatic patients who had cervical herniated discs. From July of 2002 to June of 2005, 126 consecutive patients with contained cervical disc herniations have presented at the authors' clinic and treated by PCN. The patients' gender distribution for PCN was 65 male, 61 female. The age of patients ranged from 34 to 66 years (mean 51.9 +/- 10.2 years). The levels of involvement were 21 cases at C3-4, 30 cases at C4-5, 40 cases at C5-6, and 35 cases at C6-7. The clinical outcomes, pain reduction and the segment stability were all recorded during this study. A clinical outcome was quantified by the Macnab standard and using VAS. The angular displacement (AD) > or =11 degrees or horizontal displacement (HD) > or =3 mm was considered to be radiographically unstable. In the results of this study, puncture of the needle into the disc space was accurately performed under X-ray guidance in all cases. There was one case where the Perc-D Spine Wand had broken in the disc space during the procedure. The partial Perc-D Spine Wand, which had broken in the disc space could not be removed by the percutaneous cervical discectomy and thus remained there. There were no recurrent cases or complications in our series. Macnab standard results were excellent in 62 cases, good in 41 cases and fair in 23 cases. The rate of excellent and good was 83.73%. The VAS scores demonstrated statistically significant improvement in PCN at the 2-week, 1, 3, 6, and 12-month follow-up visits when compared to preoperational values (P < 0.01). There were no cases of instability following the PCN procedure. There was no significant difference in stability either preoperatively or postoperatively (P > 0.05). Our findings confirm that PCN for the treatment of cervical disc herniation results in a good outcome without any tampering of the stability of the cervical spine. Hence, PCN as a procedure is safe, minimally invasive, less traumatic, requiring less time with an excellent clinical outcome. PCN should be performed for those patients who fail conservative medical management including medication, physical therapy, behavioral management, psychotherapy, and who are unwilling to undergo a more invasive technique such as spinal surgery.

MicroRNA­206 contributes to the progression of steroid­induced avascular necrosis of the femoral head by inducing osteoblast apoptosis by suppressing programmed cell death 4.

The expression of microRNA­206 (miR­206) is aberrantly induced in steroid­induced avascular necrosis of femoral head (SANFH). Therefore, investigating the function of miR­206 in SANFH and uncovering the functional mechanism associated with the condition will promote the understanding and treatment of the disease. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the pro­osteoclasteogenic effect of miR­206 that occurs through regulation of programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4). The expression of miR­206 and PDCD4 was analyzed in the clinical SANFH specimens. The level of miR­206 and PDCD4 was regulated in human osteoblast lineage hFOB1.19 and the effect of different treatments on cell viability, proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation potential of osteoblasts were analyzed with a Cell Counting kit­8, 5­ethynyl­2'­deoxyuridine staining, flow cytometry and Hoechst staining. The expression of miR­206 was upregulated while PDCD4 was downregulated in the SANFH specimens. Induced expression of miR­206 decreased cell viability and proliferation, while apoptosis was induced. At the molecular level, overexpression of miR­206 inhibited the expression of PDCD4, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and B­cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl­2), and increased the expression of apoptosis regulator Bcl2­X­associated protein (Bax). Inhibiting the expression of miR­206 increased cell viability and proliferation but had no effect on cell apoptosis, as detected by flow cytometry and Hoechst staining. However, at the molecular level, inhibiting the expression of miR­206 induced expression of PDCD4, ALP and Bcl­2, while it decreased the expression of Bax. Additionally, knockdown of PDCD4 blocked the effect of miR­206 inhibition on hFOB1.19 cells, representing a PDCD4­dependent manner of miR­206 in inducing apoptosis of osteoblasts. Therefore, miR­206 promoted the onset of SANFH by inducing apoptosis and suppressed the proliferation of osteoblasts, which was dependent on the inhibition of PDCD4.

[Comparison percutaneous cervical disc nucleoplasty and cervical discectomy for the treatment of cervical disc herniation].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the therapeutic effect of percutaneous cervical disc nucleoplasty (PCN group) and percutaneous cervical discectomy (PCD group) for the treatment of cervical disc herniation. METHODS: A retrospective study was carried out from July of 2002 to December of 2004, and there were 80 cervical disc herniation cases who were operated by PCN (42 cases) or PCD (38 cases). The time of operation, clinical result and the stability of cervical spine after operation were evaluated and compared between 2 groups. RESULTS: All cases had been followed up from 6 months to 26 months, average (12 +/- 5) months on the PCN group and (12 +/- 4) months on the PCD group, and there was no significant difference on 2 groups (t = -0.06, P = 0.953). All cases had been successfully operated. There was significant difference in the operation time between 2 groups (t = -21.70, P = 0.000). There was significant difference in the pre- and post-operation scores of each group (PCN group: t = 14.05, P = 0.000; PCD group: t = -14.79, P = 0.000). There was no significant difference in 2 groups of the clinical outcomes (z = -0.377, P = 0.706, > 0.05). There was no instability of cervical spine cases in 2 groups after operation (P > 0.05), and the cervical spine stability was no significant difference in pre- and-operation in each group. CONCLUSIONS: PCN and PCD for the treatment of cervical disc herniation achieves good outcomes and no difference on the stability of cervical spine. PCN and PCD is a safe, minimally invasive, short time of operation, less traumatic operation and excellent clinical outcome.