Botulinum toxin injections for low-back pain and sciatica.

BACKGROUND: Adequate relief from low-back pain (LBP) is not always possible. Emerging evidence suggests a role for botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) injections in treating pain disorders. Proponents of BoNT suggest its properties can decrease muscle spasms, ischemia and inflammatory markers, thereby reducing pain. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effects of botulinum toxin injections in adults with LBP. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library 2009, issue 3) and MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL to August 2009; screened references from included studies; consulted with content experts and Allergan. We included published and unpublished randomised controlled trials without language restrictions SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised trials that evaluated BoNT serotypes versus other treatments in patients with non-specific LBP of any duration. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors selected the studies, assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane Back Review Group criteria, and extracted the data using standardized forms. We performed a qualitative analysis due to lack of data. MAIN RESULTS: We excluded evidence from nineteen studies due to non-randomisation, incomplete or unpublished data. We included three randomised trials (N =123 patients). Only one study included patients with chronic non-specific LBP; the other two examined unique subpopulations. Only one of the three trials had a low risk of bias and demonstrated that BoNT injections reduced pain at three and eight weeks and improved function at eight weeks better than saline injections. The second trial showed that BoNT injections were better than injections of corticosteroid plus lidocaine or placebo in patients with sciatica attributed to piriformis syndrome. The third trial concluded that BoNT injections were better than traditional acupuncture in patients with third lumbar transverse process syndrome. Both studies with high risk of bias had several key limitations. Heterogeneity of the studies prevented meta-analysis. There is low quality evidence that BoNT injections improved pain, function, or both better than saline injections and very low quality evidence that they were better than acupuncture or steroid injections. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: We identified three studies that investigated the merits of BoNT for LBP, but only one had a low risk of bias and evaluated patients with non-specific LBP (N = 31). Further research is very likely to have an important impact on the estimate of effect and our confidence in it. Future trials should standardize patient populations, treatment protocols and comparison groups, enlist more participants and include long-term outcomes, cost-benefit analysis and clinical relevance of findings.

An unusual case of bilateral submandibular sialolithiasis in a young female patient.

Salivary calculi in the pediatric population comprise only 3% of all cases of sialolithiasis. In addition, the presentation of bilateral calculi in children is rare. The formation of stones in the salivary glands has been attributed to slow salivary flow, salivary stagnation and unknown metabolic events. There is no report in the literature of an association between dietary calcium intake and calculi formation. We describe the clinical findings and management in a patient with bilateral sialolithiasis thought to be linked to high dietary calcium intake and review the literature.

Management and outcome of recurrent well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The AMES (age, distant metastasis, tumor extent, and size), AGES (age, tumor size, histologic grade, tumor extent, distant metastasis), and MACIS (distant metastasis, age, completeness of primary tumor resection, local invasion, and tumor size) prognostic systems for well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma (WDTC) are well known. The development of disease recurrence is associated with a poor outcome; however, the prognostic importance of multiple treatment failures has not been clearly reported. OBJECTIVES: To identify patient, tumor, and treatment factors that may be associated with the development of multiple recurrences in WDTC. DESIGN AND SETTING: All patients treated for residual or recurrent WDTC were retrospectively identified from the thyroid cancer database at the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario (1963-2000). Data on relevant patient, tumor, and treatment factors were collected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient, tumor, and treatment factors predicting the development of multiple treatment failures, disease-specific survival, and overall survival. RESULTS: A total of 574 patients (115 male, 459 female; median age, 42 years [range, 9-92 years]) were identified, whose final histopathologic diagnosis was papillary carcinoma in 468, follicular carcinoma in 76, and mixed in 30 cases. TNM staging was as follows: 409 (71%) stage I, 66 (12%) stage II, 68 (12%) stage III, and 31 (5%) stage IV. Initial management included total thyroidectomy for 217 patients (38%), subtotal thyroidectomy for 357 (62%), and adjuvant iodine 131 therapy for 492 (86%). Seventy-three patients (13%) developed recurrent WDTC (21 male, 52 female; median age, 44 years [range, 18-84 years]). Patients were divided into 3 groups: group 1 (no recurrence, n = 501), group 2 (1 recurrence only, n = 42), and group 3 (multiple recurrences, n = 31). Group 2 data were as follows: site of recurrence (locoregional, 25; distant, 7; unspecified, 10) and treatment (surgery, 12; iodine 131, 42) and for group 3: site of first recurrence (locoregional, 16; distant, 11; unspecified, 4) and treatment (surgery, 14, iodine 131, 22; palliation, 1). Actuarial disease-specific survival at 20 years was 100%, 94%, and 60%, respectively, for the 3 groups (median follow-up, 7 years; range, 1-34 years). Male sex, advanced stage, extrathyroidal spread, and primary treatment with total thyroidectomy were predictive factors for multiple recurrences on multivariate regression (all P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: Male sex, advanced initial stage, and presence of extrathyroidal spread within the primary tumor are the most significant independent predictors of developing multiple recurrences in patients with WDTC. These patients have a poor prognosis with a significant reduction in tumor-free survival.

Prognostic implications of site of recurrence in patients with recurrent well-differentiated thyroid cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The site of treatment failure in patients with recurrent well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma (WDTC) has implications for both the mode of salvage therapy and disease-specific prognosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of the site of failure in patients with recurrent WDTC. DESIGN: Patients with recurrent thyroid cancer were identified retrospectively from 1963 to 2000. SETTING: Data were retrieved from the thyroid cancer database at the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto (1963-2000). METHODS: Patients were placed into four different groups according to their site of recurrence: group 1, local recurrence; group 2, regional recurrence; group 3, distant recurrence; and group 4, unspecified recurrence. Patient, tumour, and treatment data were collected and compared. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate survival data, and curves were compared using the log rank test. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome included alive, no disease; alive with disease; dead, no disease; and dead of disease. RESULTS: Seventy-three patients (21 male, 52 female; median age 44 years, range 18-84 years) were eligible for inclusion in this study. Relevant data were divided according to group 1, 22 patients; group 2, 24 patients; group 3, 13 patients; and group 4, 14 patients. The groups were comparable in terms of primary tumour and treatment factors. The actuarial disease-specific survival rate after salvage therapy was less significant in patients who developed a distant recurrence versus a local recurrence, a regional recurrence, or an unspecified recurrence (ie, 66% vs 95%, 88%, and 92%, respectively; p = .06). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with distant recurrences have a poor prognosis, with a significant reduction in the actuarial disease-specific survival rate.