Randomized controlled trial of individualized arousal-biofeedback for children and adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD).

Disruptive behavior disorders [including conduct disorder (CD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)] are common childhood and adolescent psychiatric conditions often linked to altered arousal. The recommended first-line treatment is multi-modal therapy and includes psychosocial and behavioral interventions. Their modest effect sizes along with clinically and biologically heterogeneous phenotypes emphasize the need for innovative personalized treatment targeting impaired functions such as arousal dysregulation. A total of 37 children aged 8-14 years diagnosed with ODD/CD were randomized to 20 sessions of individualized arousal biofeedback using skin conductance levels (SCL-BF) or active treatment as usual (TAU) including psychoeducation and cognitive-behavioral elements. The primary outcome was the change in parents´ ratings of aggressive behavior measured by the Modified Overt Aggression Scale. Secondary outcome measures were subscales from the Child Behavior Checklist, the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional traits, and the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire. The SCL-BF treatment was neither superior nor inferior to the active TAU. Both groups showed reduced aggression after treatment with small effects for the primary outcome and large effects for some secondary outcomes. Importantly, successful learning of SCL self-regulation was related to reduced aggression at post-assessment. Individualized SCL-BF was not inferior to active TAU for any treatment outcome with improvements in aggression. Further, participants were on average able to self-regulate their SCL, and those who best learned self-regulation showed the highest clinical improvement, pointing to specificity of SCL-BF regulation for improving aggression. Further studies with larger samples and improved methods, for example by developing BF for mobile use in ecologically more valid settings are warranted.

Healthcare experience affects pain-specific responses to others' suffering in the anterior insula.

Medical students and professional healthcare providers often underestimate patients' pain, together with decreased neural responses to pain information in the anterior insula (AI), a brain region implicated in self-pain processing and negative affect. However, the functional significance and specificity of these neural changes remains debated. Across two experiments, we recruited university medical students and emergency nurses to test the role of healthcare experience on the brain reactivity to other's pain, emotions, and beliefs, using both pictorial and verbal cues. Brain responses to self-pain was also assessed and compared with those to observed pain. Our results confirmed that healthcare experience decreased the activity in AI in response to others' suffering. This effect was independent from stimulus modality (pictures or texts), but specific for pain, as it did not generalize to inferences about other mental or affective states. Furthermore, representational similarity and multivariate pattern analysis revealed that healthcare experience impacted specifically a component of the neural representation of others' pain that is shared with that of first-hand nociception, and related more to AI than to other pain-responsive regions. Taken together, our study suggests a decreased propensity to appraise others' suffering as one's own, associated with a reduced recruitment of pain-specific information in AI. These findings provide new insights into neural mechanisms leading to pain underestimation by caregivers in clinical settings.

Validation of smartphone app-based digital patient reported outcomes in full-endoscopic spine surgery.

PURPOSE: Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are important tools to assess patient function, pain, disability, and quality of life. We aim to study the efficiency and validity of digital PROMs collection using a smartphone app compared to traditional paper PROMs. METHODS: Patients undergoing evaluation for full-endoscopic spine surgery were recruited from the outpatient clinic at Harborview Medical Center. Visual analogue scale (VAS), Oswestry disability index (ODI), and EQ5-5D PROMs were administered on paper and through a smartphone app called SpineHealthie. Compliance rates were collected, and PROM results were assessed for correlation between paper and digital methods. RESULTS: 123 patients were enrolled. 57.7% of patients completed paper PROMs, 82.9% completed digital PROMs, and 48.8% completed both. Of the patients that completed both, Spearman's correlation was greatest for VAS leg, ODI, and EQ5 index scores. Correlation was weaker for VAS back pain, neck pain, and upper extremity pain. Patients tended to report lower disability and higher quality of life on the digital PROM compared to the paper PROM. CONCLUSION: The SpineHealthie app effectively and accurately collects PROMs digitally, showing strong concordance with traditional paper PROMs. We conclude that digital PROMs constitute a promising strategy for monitoring patients after spine surgery over time.

Surgeon reported practice patterns related to full endoscopic cervical decompression procedures.

BACKGROUND: The microsurgical anterior approach to the cervical spine is commonplace. Fewer surgeons perform posterior cervical microsurgical procedures on a routine basis for lack of indication, more bleeding, persistent postoperative neck pain, and risk of progressive misalignment. In comparison, the endoscopic technique is preferentially performed through the posterior approach. Many spine surgeons and even surgeons versed in lumbar endoscopy are often reluctant to consider endoscopic procedures in the cervical spine. We report the results of a surgeon survey to find out why. METHODS: A questionnaire of 10 questions was sent to spine surgeons by email and chat groups in social media networks including Facebook, WeChat, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn to collect practice pattern data about microscopic and endoscopic spine surgery in the lumbar and cervical spine. The responses were cross-tabulated by surgeons' demographic data. Pearson Chi-Square measures, Kappa statistics, and linear regression analysis of agreement or disagreement were performed by analyzing the distribution of variances using the statistical package SPSS Version 27.0. RESULTS: The survey response rate was 39.7%, with 50 of the 126 surgeons who started the survey submitting a completed questionnaire. Of the 50 surgeons, 56.2% were orthopedic, and 42% neurological surgeons. Most surgeons worked in private practice (42%). Another 26% were university-employed, 18% were in private practice affiliated with a university, and the remaining 14% were hospital employed. The majority of surgeons (55.1%) were autodidacts. The largest responding surgeon groups were between 35-44 years (38%) and between 45-54 years of age (34%). Half of the responding surgeons were routinely performing endoscopic cervical spine surgery. The other half did not perform it for the main hurdle of fear of complications (50%). Lack of appropriate mentorship was listed as second most reason (25.4%). More concerns for not performing cervical endoscopic approaches were the perception of lack of technology (20.8%) and suitable surgical indication (12.5%). Only 4.2% considered cervical endoscopy too risky. Nearly a third (30.6%) of the spine surgeons treated over 80% of their cervical spine patients with endoscopic surgeries. Most commonly performed were posterior endoscopic cervical discectomy (PECD; 52%), posterior endoscopic cervical foraminotomy (PECF; 48%), anterior endoscopic cervical discectomy (AECD; 32%), cervical endoscopic unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression (CE-ULBD; 30%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Cervical endoscopic spine surgery is gaining traction among spine surgeons. However, by far most surgeons performing cervical endoscopic spine surgery work in private practice and are autodidacts. This lack of a teacher to shorten the learning curve as well as fear of complications are two of the major impediments to the successful implementation of cervical endoscopic procedures.

Full-endoscopic trans-pars interarticularis approach for far lateral lumbar discectomy.

PURPOSE: Surgical management of far lateral disc herniations remains challenging. Current transforaminal full-endoscopic approaches require non-visualized docking in the Kambin's triangle and have been associated with significant risk of inadvertent nerve injury. We develop a full-endoscopic approach based on reliable bony landmarks allowing for visualization of the exiting nerve root prior to the far lateral discectomy. METHODS: The surgical details of a full-endoscopic trans-pars interarticularis approach for far lateral discectomy are described. These descriptions include high quality intraoperative images and important surgical pearls. A small patient cohort is presented to demonstrate feasibility and safety of the procedure. RESULTS: We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach in 14 patients with a mean age of 59.5 ± 14.7 years. At a mean follow up of 21.9 ± 6.8 months, improvement of the visual analogue scale (VAS) for leg pain was 4.3 ± 1.0 resulting in minimally clinically important difference in 78.6% of the patients. The mean improvement in VAS for the back pain was 2.6 ± 0.8 and for Oswestry disability index (ODI) was 20.6 ± 5.3. Nuances of the trans-pars surgical techniques are presented in a patient with a right-sided L4-5 far lateral disc herniation. Preoperative imaging studies, steps of the surgical progression, and intraoperative views are described in detail. CONCLUSION: Using the pars interarticularis as the bony target area allows for safe visualized access to the extraforaminal compartment of the exiting nerve root. This novel surgical technique has the potential benefit of decreasing inadvertent neural injury and subsequent postoperative dysesthesias.

Incidence and management of dural tears in full-endoscopic unilateral laminotomies for bilateral lumbar decompression.

PURPOSE: To report incidence of dural lacerations in lumbar endoscopic unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression (LE-ULBD) and to describe patient outcomes following a novel full-endoscopic bimanual durotomy repair. METHODS: Retrospective review of prospectively collected database including 5.5 years of single surgeon experience with LE-ULBD. Patients with no durotomy were compared with patients who experienced intraoperative durotomy, including demographics, ASA score, prior surgery, number of levels treated, procedure time, hospital length of stay (LOS), visual analogue scale, perioperative complications, revision surgeries, use of analgesics, and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). RESULTS: In total, 13/174 patients (7.5%) undergoing LE-ULBD experienced intraoperative durotomy. No significant differences in demographic, clinical or operative variables were identified between the 2 groups. Sustaining a durotomy increased LOS (p = 0.0019); no differences in perioperative complications or rate of revision surgery were identified. There was no difference in minimally clinically important difference for ODI between groups (65.6% for no durotomy versus 55.6% for durotomy, p = 0.54). CONCLUSION: In this cohort, sustaining a durotomy increased LOS but, with accompanying intraoperative repair, did not significantly affect rate of complications, revision surgery or functional outcomes. Our method of bimanual endoscopic dural repair provides an effective approach for repair of dural lacerations in interlaminar ULBD cases.

Full-endoscopic technique mitigates obesity-related perioperative morbidity of minimally invasive lumbar decompression.

PURPOSE: Obesity is associated with increased surgical complexity and postoperative complications in spine surgery. Minimally invasive procedures have been shown to lessen some of the increased risk in obese patients. This study investigated whether utilization of a working channel endoscope can further mitigate obesity-associated challenges in spinal surgery. METHODS: A retrospective review of a single-surgeon database was conducted for all adult patients undergoing full-endoscopic unilateral laminotomies for bilateral decompression between November 2015 and March 2021. Data collected included body mass index, in operating room preparation time, procedure time, length of hospital stay, use of analgesics, complications, and quality of life measured by Oswestry Disability Index. RESULTS: Our cohort included 174 patients. Of these, 74 (42.5%) were obese. The average age was 63.6 years. In-operating room preparation time was 70.0 ± 1.7 min for obese patients and 64.4 ± 1.5 min for non-obese patients (p = 0.02). There was no difference in operative time, durotomy rates or other perioperative complications between obese and non-obese patients. Hospital length of stay trended toward longer in the obese group, but did not reach significance. A greater percentage of obese patients were still using both narcotic and non-narcotic pain medications 2 weeks after surgery. There was no significant difference in functional outcomes between groups. CONCLUSION: Full-endoscopic unilateral laminotomies for bilateral decompression are safe and effective in both non-obese and obese patients. The use of an endoscope can partially mitigate obesity-related morbidity in lumbar decompression. However, obesity is significantly related to increased postoperative analgesic use.

Comparative analysis of perioperative characteristics and early outcomes in transforaminal endoscopic lumbar diskectomy: general anesthesia versus conscious sedation.

PURPOSE: To better understand how anesthesia type impacts patient selection and recovery in TELD, we conducted a multicenter prospective study which evaluates the differences in perioperative characteristics and outcomes between patients who underwent TELD with either general anesthesia (GA) or conscious sedation (CS). METHODS: We prospectively collected data from all TELD performed by five neurosurgeons at five different medical centers between February and October of 2022. The study population was dichotomized by anesthesia scheme, creating CS and GA cohorts. This study's primary outcomes were the Oswetry Disability Index (ODI) and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for back and leg pain, assessed preoperatively and at 2-week follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 52 patients underwent TELD for symptomatic lumbar disk herniation. Twenty-three patients received conscious sedation with local anesthesia, and 29 patients were operated on under general anesthesia. Patients who received CS were significantly older (60.0 vs. 46.7, p < 0.001) and had lower BMI (28.2 vs. 33.4, p = 0.005) than patients under GA. No intraoperative or anesthetic complications occurred in the CS and GA cohorts. Improvement at 2-week follow-up in ODI, VAS-back, and VAS-leg was greater in patients receiving CS relative to patients under GA, but these differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: In our multicenter prospective analysis of 52 patients undergoing TELD, we found that patients receiving CS were significantly older and had significantly lower BMI compared to patients under GA. On subgroup analysis, no statistically significant differences were found in the improvement of PROMs between patients in the CS and GA group.

Learning curve for endoscopic posterior cervical foraminotomy.

PURPOSE: While anterior cervical discectomy and fusion as well as cervical disk arthroplasty are gold standard treatments for the surgical treatment of cervical radiculopathy, posterior endoscopic cervical foraminotomy (PECF) as a substitute procedure is gaining popularity. To date, studies investigating the number of surgeries needed to achieve proficiency in this procedure are lacking. The purpose of the study is to examine the learning curve for PECF. METHODS: The learning curve in operative time for two fellowship-trained spine surgeons at independent institutions was retrospectively assessed for 90 uniportal PECF procedures (PBD: n = 26, CPH: n = 64) performed from 2015 to 2022. Operative time was assessed across consecutive cases using a nonparametric monotone regression, and a plateau in operative time was used as a proxy to define the learning curve. Secondary outcomes assessing achievement of endoscopic prowess before and after the initial learning curve included number of fluoroscopy images, visual analog scale (VAS) for neck and arm, Neck Disability Index (NDI), and the need for reoperation. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in operative time between surgeons (p = 0.420). The start of a plateau for Surgeon 1 occurred at 9 cases and 111.6 min. The start of a plateau for Surgeon 2 occurred at 29 cases and 114.7 min. A second plateau for Surgeon 2 occurred at 49 cases and 91.8 min. Fluoroscopy use did not significantly change before and after surmounting the learning curve. The majority of patients achieved minimally clinically important differences in VAS and NDI after PECF, but postoperative VAS and NDI did not significantly differ before and after achieving the learning curve. There were no significant differences in revisions or postoperative cervical injections before and after reaching a steady state in the learning curve. CONCLUSION: PECF is an advanced endoscopic technique with an initial improvement in operative time that occurred after as few as 8 cases to as many as 28 cases in this series. A second learning curve may occur with additional cases. Patient-reported outcomes improve following surgery, and these outcomes are independent of the surgeon's position on the learning curve. Fluoroscopy use does not change significantly along the learning curve. PECF is a safe and effective technique that current and future spine surgeons should consider as part of their armamentarium.

Cellular allograft for multilevel stand-alone anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.

OBJECTIVE: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is the most common treatment for degenerative disease of the cervical spine. Given the high rate of pseudarthrosis in multilevel stand-alone ACDF, there is a need to explore the utility of novel grafting materials. In this study, the authors present a single-institution retrospective study of patients with multilevel degenerative spine disease who underwent multilevel stand-alone ACDF surgery with or without cellular allograft supplementation. METHODS: In a prospectively collected database, 28 patients who underwent multilevel ACDF supplemented with cellular allograft (ViviGen) and 25 patients who underwent multilevel ACDF with decellularized allograft between 2014 and 2020 were identified. The primary outcome was radiographic fusion determined by a 1-year follow-up CT scan. Secondary outcomes included change in Neck Disability Index (NDI) scores and change in visual analog scale scores for neck and arm pain. RESULTS: The study included 53 patients with a mean age of 53 ± 0.7 years who underwent multilevel stand-alone ACDF encompassing 2.6 ± 0.7 levels on average. Patient demographics were similar between the two cohorts. In the cellular allograft cohort, 2 patients experienced postoperative dysphagia that resolved by the 3-month follow-up. One patient developed cervical radiculopathy due to graft subsidence and required a posterior foraminotomy. At the 1-year CT, successful fusion was achieved in 92.9% (26/28) of patients who underwent ACDF supplemented with cellular allograft, compared with 84.0% (21/25) of patients who underwent ACDF without cellular allograft. The cellular allograft cohort experienced a significantly greater improvement in the mean postoperative NDI score (p < 0.05) compared with the other cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Cellular allograft is a low-morbidity bone allograft option for ACDF. In this study, the authors determined favorable arthrodesis rates and functional outcomes in a complex patient cohort following multilevel stand-alone ACDF supplemented with cellular allograft.

Aggression subtypes relate to distinct resting state functional connectivity in children and adolescents with disruptive behavior.

There is increasing evidence for altered brain resting state functional connectivity in adolescents with disruptive behavior. While a considerable body of behavioral research points to differences between reactive and proactive aggression, it remains unknown whether these two subtypes have dissociable effects on connectivity. Additionally, callous-unemotional traits are important specifiers in subtyping aggressive behavior along the affective dimension. Accordingly, we examined associations between two aggression subtypes along with callous-unemotional traits using a seed-to-voxel approach. Six functionally relevant seeds were selected to probe the salience and the default mode network, based on their presumed role in aggression. The resting state sequence was acquired from 207 children and adolescents of both sexes [mean age (standard deviation) = 13.30 (2.60); range = 8.02-18.35] as part of a Europe-based multi-center study. One hundred eighteen individuals exhibiting disruptive behavior (conduct disorder/oppositional defiant disorder) with varying comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms were studied, together with 89 healthy controls. Proactive aggression was associated with increased left amygdala-precuneus coupling, while reactive aggression related to hyper-connectivities of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) to the parahippocampus, the left amygdala to the precuneus and to hypo-connectivity between the right anterior insula and the nucleus caudate. Callous-unemotional traits were linked to distinct hyper-connectivities to frontal, parietal, and cingulate areas. Additionally, compared to controls, cases demonstrated reduced connectivity of the PCC and left anterior insula to left frontal areas, the latter only when controlling for ADHD scores. Taken together, this study revealed aggression-subtype-specific patterns involving areas associated with emotion, empathy, morality, and cognitive control.

Worldwide research productivity in the field of full-endoscopic spine surgery: a bibliometric study.

PURPOSE: To investigate the quantity and quality of articles in the field of full-endoscopic spine surgery (FESS) from different countries and assess characteristics of worldwide research productivity. METHODS: Articles published from 1997 to July 23, 2018, were screened using the Web of Science database. All studies were assessed for the following parameters: the number of total publications, h-index, contribution of countries, authors, journals, and institutions. RESULTS: A total of 408 articles were identified between 1997 and 2018. Between 1997 and 2017, the number of published articles tended to increase by 41 times. The largest number of articles was from China (30.15%), followed by South Korea (28.68%), the USA (13.97%), Germany (9.31%), and Japan (4.90%). The highest h-index was found for articles from South Korea (23), followed by the USA (18), Germany (16), China (11), and Japan (7). The highest number of articles was published in World Neurosurgery (12.50%), followed by Pain Physician (10.29%), Spine (6.62%), European Spine Journal (4.66%), and Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine (4.17%). Wooridul Spine Hospital published the largest number of articles (10.29%), followed by Tongji University (5.88%), University of Witten/Herdecke (5.39%), Brown University (5.15%), and Third Military Medical University (3.43%). CONCLUSIONS: The number of articles published in the field of FESS has increased rapidly in the past 20 years. In terms of quantity, China is the most contributive country based on the number of publications. High-quality papers as measured by h-index and the large quantity is from South Korea (second only to China). These slides can be retrieved under Electronic Supplementary Material.

Transcutaneous contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging of the posttraumatic spinal cord.

STUDY DESIGN: Experimental animal study. OBJECTIVE: The current study aims to test whether the blood flow within the contused spinal cord can be assessed in a rodent model via the acoustic window of the laminectomy utilizing transcutaneous ultrasound. SETTING: Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle WA. METHODS: Long-Evans rats (n = 12) were subjected to a traumatic thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI). Three days and 10 weeks after injury, animals underwent imaging of the contused spinal cord using ultrafast contrast-enhanced ultrasound with a Vantage ultrasound research system in combination with a 15 MHz transducer. Lesion size and signal-to-noise ratios were estimated via transcutaneous, subcutaneous, or epidural ultrasound acquisition through the acoustic window created by the original laminectomy. RESULTS: Following laminectomy, transcutaneous and subcutaneous contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging allowed for assessment of perfusion and vascular flow in the contused rodent spinal cord. An average loss of 7.2 dB from transcutaneous to subcutaneous and the loss of 5.1 dB from subcutaneous to epidural imaging in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was observed. The hypoperfused injury center was measured transcutaneously, subcutaneously and epidurally (5.78 ± 0.86, 5.91 ± 0.53, 5.65 ± 1.07 mm2) at 3 days post injury. The same animals were reimaged again at 10 weeks following SCI, and the area of hypoperfusion had decreased significantly compared with the 3-day measurements detected via transcutaneous, subcutaneous, and epidural imaging respectively (0.69 ± 0.05, 1.09 ± 0.11, 0.95 ± 0.11 mm2, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Transcutaneous ultrasound allows for measurements and longitudinal monitoring of local hemodynamic changes in a rodent SCI model.

Impact of lordotic cages in the restoration of spinopelvic parameters after dorsal lumbar interbody fusion: a retrospective case control study.

PURPOSE: Aim of this study was to compare the reconstruction of radiological sagittal spinopelvic parameters between lordotic (10°) and normal cages (0°) after dorsal lumbar spondylodesis. METHODS: This retrospective monocentric study included patients who received dorsal lumbar spondylodesis between January 2014 and December 2018. Inclusion criteria were degenerative lumbar diseases and mono- or bi-segmental fusions in the middle and lower lumbar region. Exclusion criteria were long-distance fusions (3 segments and more) and infectious and tumour-related diseases. The sagittal spinopelvine parameters (lumbar lordosis, segmental lordosis, sacral slope, pelvic incidence, and pelvic tilt) were measured pre- and post-operatively by two examiners at two different times. The patients were divided into 2 groups (group 1: lordotic cage, group 2: normal cage). RESULTS: One hundred thirty-eight patients (77 female, 61 male) with an average age of 66.6 ± 11.2 years (min.: 26, max.: 90) were included in the study based on the inclusion criteria. Ninety-two patients (66.7%) received 0° cages and 46 (33.3%) lordotic cages (10°). Segmental lordosis was increased by 4.2° on average in group 1 and by 6.5° in group 2 (p = 0.074). Average lumbar lordosis was increased by 2.1° in group 1 and by 0.6° in group 2 (p = 0.378). There was no significant difference in the correction of sagittal spinopelvic parameters. Inter- and inter-class reliability was between 0.887 and 0.956. CONCLUSION: According to the results of our study, no advantages regarding sagittal radiological parameters for the implantation of a lordotic cage could be demonstrated.

Emerging neural specialization of the ventral occipitotemporal cortex to characters through phonological association learning in preschool children.

The ventral occipitotemporal (vOT) cortex serves as a core region for visual processing, and specific areas of this region show preferential activation for various visual categories such as faces and print. The emergence of such functional specialization in the human cortex represents a pivotal developmental process, which provides a basis for targeted and efficient information processing. For example, functional specialization to print in the left vOT is an important prerequisite for fluent reading. However, it remains unclear, which processes initiate the preferential cortical activations to characters arising in the vOT during child development. Using a multimodal neuroimaging approach with preschool children at familial risk for developmental dyslexia, we demonstrate how varying levels of expertise modulate the neural response to single characters, which represent the building blocks of print units. The level of expertise to characters was manipulated firstly through brief training of false-font speech-sound associations and secondly by comparing characters for which children differed in their level of familiarity and expertise accumulated through abundant exposure in their everyday environment. Neural correlates of character processing were tracked with simultaneous high-density electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging in a target detection task. We found training performance and expertise-dependent modulation of the visual event-related potential around 220 ms (N1) and the corresponding vOT activation. Additionally, trained false-font characters revealed stronger functional connectivity between the left fusiform gyrus (FFG) seed and left superior parietal/lateral occipital cortex regions with higher training performance. In sum, our results demonstrate that learning artificial-character speech-sound associations enhances activation to trained characters in the vOT and that the magnitude of this activation and the functional connectivity of the left FFG to the parieto-occipital cortex depends on learning performance. This pattern of results suggests emerging development of the reading network after brief training that parallels network specialization during reading acquisition.

Comparison of full-endoscopic and minimally invasive decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis in the setting of degenerative scoliosis and spondylolisthesis.

OBJECTIVEThe management of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) with concurrent scoliosis and/or spondylolisthesis remains controversial. Full-endoscopic unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression (ULBD) facilitates neural decompression while preserving stabilizing osseoligamentous structures and may be uniquely suited for the treatment of LSS with concurrent mild to moderate degenerative deformity. The safety and efficacy of full-endoscopic versus minimally invasive surgery (MIS) ULBD in this patient population is studied here for the first time.METHODSA retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data was conducted on 45 consecutive LSS patients with concurrent scoliosis (≥ 10° coronal Cobb angle) and/or spondylolisthesis (≥ 3 mm). Patient demographics, operative details, complications, and imaging characteristics were reviewed. Outcomes were quantified using back and leg visual analog scale (VAS) scores and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) at 2 weeks, 3 months, and 1 year.RESULTSA total of 26 patients underwent full-endoscopic and 19 underwent MIS-ULBD with an average follow-up period of 12 months. The endoscopic cohort experienced a significantly shorter hospital length of stay (p = 0.014) and fewer adverse events (p = 0.010). Both cohorts experienced significant improvements in VAS and ODI scores at all time points (p < 0.001), but the endoscopic cohort demonstrated significantly better early ODI scores (p = 0.024).CONCLUSIONSEndoscopic and MIS-ULBD result in similar functional outcomes for LSS with mild to moderate deformity, while the endoscopic approach demonstrates a favorable rate of complications. Further studies are required to better delineate the characteristics of spinal deformities amenable to this approach and the durability of functional results.

Asymmetrical effects of unilateral right or left amygdala damage on auditory cortical processing of vocal emotions.

We tested whether human amygdala lesions impair vocal processing in intact cortical networks. In two functional MRI experiments, patients with unilateral amygdala resection either listened to voices and nonvocal sounds or heard binaural vocalizations with attention directed toward or away from emotional information on one side. In experiment 1, all patients showed reduced activation to voices in the ipsilesional auditory cortex. In experiment 2, emotional voices evoked increased activity in both the auditory cortex and the intact amygdala for right-damaged patients, whereas no such effects were found for left-damaged amygdala patients. Furthermore, the left inferior frontal cortex was functionally connected with the intact amygdala in right-damaged patients, but only with homologous right frontal areas and not with the amygdala in left-damaged patients. Thus, unilateral amygdala damage leads to globally reduced ipsilesional cortical voice processing, but only left amygdala lesions are sufficient to suppress the enhanced auditory cortical processing of vocal emotions.

Neural initialization of audiovisual integration in prereaders at varying risk for developmental dyslexia.

Learning letter-speech sound correspondences is a major step in reading acquisition and is severely impaired in children with dyslexia. Up to now, it remains largely unknown how quickly neural networks adopt specific functions during audiovisual integration of linguistic information when prereading children learn letter-speech sound correspondences. Here, we simulated the process of learning letter-speech sound correspondences in 20 prereading children (6.13-7.17 years) at varying risk for dyslexia by training artificial letter-speech sound correspondences within a single experimental session. Subsequently, we acquired simultaneously event-related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans during implicit audiovisual presentation of trained and untrained pairs. Audiovisual integration of trained pairs correlated with individual learning rates in right superior temporal, left inferior temporal, and bilateral parietal areas and with phonological awareness in left temporal areas. In correspondence, a differential left-lateralized parietooccipitotemporal ERP at 400 ms for trained pairs correlated with learning achievement and familial risk. Finally, a late (650 ms) posterior negativity indicating audiovisual congruency of trained pairs was associated with increased fMRI activation in the left occipital cortex. Taken together, a short (<30 min) letter-speech sound training initializes audiovisual integration in neural systems that are responsible for processing linguistic information in proficient readers. To conclude, the ability to learn grapheme-phoneme correspondences, the familial history of reading disability, and phonological awareness of prereading children account for the degree of audiovisual integration in a distributed brain network. Such findings on emerging linguistic audiovisual integration could allow for distinguishing between children with typical and atypical reading development. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1038-1055, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Unilateral tubular approach for bilateral laminotomy: effect on ipsilateral and contralateral buttock and leg pain.

PURPOSE: Tubular laminotomy is an effective procedure for treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) and lateral recesses stenosis. Most surgeons familiar with the procedure agree that the tubular approach appears to afford a more complete decompression of the contralateral thecal sac and nerve root, as compared to the ipsilateral approach. With this study we sought to answer the question whether this is reflected in clinically significant differences between the ipsilateral and contralateral side pain improvements. METHODS: In a retrospective case study, patients with LSS and lateral recesses stenosis who started out with VAS scores that were similar on the right and left side were included. All patients underwent a tubular (MIS) "over the top" laminotomy from a unilateral approach and through one incision. Surgeries were performed by a single surgeon in a single center. At the last follow-up, the extent of VAS score improvement on the approach (ipsilateral) side was compared to that of the contralateral side. RESULTS: Thirty-three patients were included in. At the latest follow-up of 25.8 ± 3.4 months, there were statistically significant improvements in ODI and back VAS scores (p = 0.002 and p < 0.0001, respectively). In addition, buttock VAS scores were significantly improved both on the ipsilateral and the contralateral side (p < 0.001, and p = 0.001, respectively). Similarly, leg VAS scores were improved significantly on both sides (p < 0.001, and p = 0.001, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences between the extent of pain improvement on the ipsilateral and the contralateral side. CONCLUSIONS: MIS tubular laminotomy through a unilateral approach results in clinically effective bilateral decompression of LSS and lateral recesses, regardless of the approach side.

Injectable Hydrogels for Spinal Cord Repair: A Focus on Swelling and Intraspinal Pressure.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition that leaves patients with limited motor and sensory function at and below the injury site, with little to no hope of a meaningful recovery. Because of their ability to mimic multiple features of central nervous system (CNS) tissues, injectable hydrogels are being developed that can participate as therapeutic agents in reducing secondary injury and in the regeneration of spinal cord tissue. Injectable biomaterials can provide a supportive substrate for tissue regeneration, deliver therapeutic factors, and regulate local tissue physiology. Recent reports of increasing intraspinal pressure after SCI suggest that this physiological change can contribute to injury expansion, also known as secondary injury. Hydrogels contain high water content similar to native tissue, and many hydrogels absorb water and swell after formation. In the case of injectable hydrogels for the spinal cord, this process often occurs in or around the spinal cord tissue, and thus may affect intraspinal pressure. In the future, predictable swelling properties of hydrogels may be leveraged to control intraspinal pressure after injury. Here, we review the physiology of SCI, with special attention to the current clinical and experimental literature, underscoring the importance of controlling intraspinal pressure after SCI. We then discuss how hydrogel fabrication, injection, and swelling can impact intraspinal pressure in the context of developing injectable biomaterials for SCI treatment.