• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.270-273
• /
• 1997

Caudal epiduroscopy has been introduced as an alternative technique for direct injection of epidural steroid and lysis of adhesion. Futher, it gives a better understanding of the role of epidural adhesion in recurrence of sciatica and low back disorder after surgery. We experienced a clinical application of flexible fiberoptic epiduroscope inserted through the sacral canal. A 37-year-old woman was suffering from right lumbar radiculopathy after an operation for a herniated disc. A series of volumetric caudal steroid injections and physical therapy had little effect on her symptoms. Patient was thought to be a good candidate for epiduroscopy. Flexible flberoptic epiduroscopy was as follows: 60 ml of normal saline irrigation and epidurogram, 40 mg of triamcinolone in 10m1 of normal saline was directed around right L5 nerve root. The following morning, patient reported reduced pain in her leg.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.181-187
• /
• 1988

Since the introduction of epidural corticosteroid injections for the management of sciatica, lumbosacral radiculopathy has become one of the most common pain problems encountered by anesthesiologists. In order to function effectively, anesthesiologists should be able to: (1) recognize those syndromes which may respond to nerve block; (2) understand the pathophysiology of the conditions being treated and (3) be familiar with alternate therapeutic pathways for patients not responding to merre block. There are many etiologic factors of low back pain and lumbosacral radiculopathy. Particularly, Nerve root compression caused by a protruding disc, a osteophyte or tumors are usually responsible for pain. Neural inflammation, therefore, is considered to play a major role in pain production. The use of local anesthetics in mixture with steroids is believed to break down neural inflammation. Steroids and local anesthetics were injected lumbar or caudal epidmal to 106 patients for the purpose of relieving low back pain and lumbosacral radiculopathy. The results are as follows: Excellent pain relieved group: 27 patients (25.5%) Good pain relieved group: 49 patients (46.1%) Fair pain relieved group: 15 patients(14.2%) Not effective group: 15 patients(14.2%).

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.129-135
• /
• 2016

Although discal cysts are a rare cause of low back pain and radiculopathy. Currently, surgical excision is usually the first-line treatment for discal cysts. However, alternative treatment methods have been suggested, as in some cases symptoms have improved with interventional therapies. A 27-year-old man presented with an acute onset of severe pain, and was found to have a discal cyst after an open discectomy. The patient underwent cyst aspiration and steroid injection through the facet joint under C-arm guidance. After the procedure, the patient's pain improved to NRS 0-1. On outpatient physical examination 1 week, and 1 and 3 months later, no abnormal neurological symptoms were present, and pain did not persist; thus, follow-up observation was terminated. When a discal cyst is diagnosed, it is more appropriate to consider interventional management instead of surgery as a first-line treatment, while planning for surgical resection if the symptoms do not improve or accompanying neurologic deficits progress.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
• /
• v.2 no.4
• /
• pp.749-761
• /
• 1995

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of V-trac on the clinical characteristics of patients who suffered from HIVD. The data were collected from 500 cases who had lumbar disc problems, from August, 1993 to July, 1995. The results of study were as follows; 1. Total patients statistics; mean age is 38 years, average duration of symptom is 5.4 years. 2. Symptomatic effects; HNP is 89.5 %, spinal stenosis is 55.1 %, and mean effects of total symptom is 80.0 %. 3. Pain relief effects; 1st session is 85.0 %, 7 th sessions are 89.3 %. 4. Back muscle improved effects; 10 sessions are 25.6 % rather than 1st session patients. 5. Sciatic scoliosis correction effect; Corrected scoliosis is improved 86.6 % by the 14 sessions V-trac. 6. Psychological effects; mental vigour is 51.2 %, emotional stability is 57.4 %, well-being is 72.5 %, comfortable sleeping is 60.2 %. 7. Follow-up states after V-trac therapy; Good conditions are 72.0 %, less conditions are 28.0 % after 1 month.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.69-73
• /
• 2005

This report describes a case of spinal nerve root compression due to an acute inflammatory granuloma after lumbar surgery. A 39 year-old man with a history of increasing back pain with a 3-week duration was diagnosed with a herniated intervertebral disc (HIVD). The diagnosis of a HIVD was confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with indications for surgery. A discectomy and a partial laminectomy was performed and the symptoms were alleviated immediately after surgery for a five-day period. However, a slowly progressing pain was subsequently noted along a different dermatome. There was no pain relief despite the patient being given pharmacological treatments, combined with an epidural steroid injection. The follow up MRI images showed severe compression of the nerve roots by a epidural lesion. Another procedure was performed 17 days after the initial operation. The lesion responsible for the compression of the nerve roots was found to be an acute inflammatory granuloma. The pain was relieved after the second procedure and there were no other symptoms or neurological problems. This case is remarkable in that a granuloma formed relatively quickly and grew to such a size that it was able to severely compress the surrounding nerve roots.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.442-444
• /
• 2005

Objective : There were few reports about statistically significant factor which contribute to low back pain[LBP] after microscopic discectomy. We analyzed the result of percutaneous radiofrequency neurotomy[PRN] for low back pain after microscopic discectomy in lumbar disc herniation. Methods : Forty four patients with LBP after microscopic discectomy who were treated by one level microscopic discectomy from January 2003 to March 2004 were included in this study. They were divided into two groups by the presence of preoperative LBP into preoperative back pain group [group I] and postoperative back pain group [group II]. Radiofrequency procedures were performed in the usual manner, targetting the medial branch of L4, L5 and Sl. Pain relief was estimated at 1 week, 1 month and 6 months following the procedure, using the visual analogue scale. Above 50% pain relief was defined as the positive response. Results : Positive responders were 16 patients [73%] at 1 week, 12 patients [55%] at 1 month, and 7 patients [32%] at 6 months after PRN in group I. In Group II, 18 patients, 15 patients and 13 patients responded positively after 1 week, 1 month and 6 months after PRN, respectively. Conclusion : PRN is an effective treatment for newly developed low back pain after microscopic discectomy. There was no morbidity in our series, but long-term follow up is necessary.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.3-12
• /
• 2024

One of the most common sources of spinal pain syndromes is the facet joints. Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar facet joint pain syndromes comprise 55%, 42%, and 31% of chronic spinal pain syndromes, respectively. Common facet joint disorders are degenerative disorders, such as osteoarthritis, hypertrophied superior articular process, and facet joint cysts; septic arthritis; systemic and metabolic disorders, such as ankylosing spondylitis or gout; and traumatic dislocations. The facet pain syndrome from osteoarthritis is suspected from a patient's history (referred pain pattern) and physical examination (tenderness). Other facet joint disorders may cause radicular pain if mass effect from a facet joint cyst, hypertrophied superior articular process, or tumors compress the dorsal root ganglion. However, a high degree of morphological change does not always provoke pain. The superiority of innervating nerve block or direct joint injection for diagnosis and treatment is still a controversy. Treatment includes facet joint injection in facet joint osteoarthritis or whiplash injury provoking referred pain or decompression in mass effect in cases of hypertrophied superior articular process or facet joint cyst eliciting radicular pain. In addition, septic arthritis is treated using a proper antibiotic, based on infected tissue or blood culture. This review describes the diagnosis and treatment of common facet joint disorders.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.397-409
• /
• 2007

Owing to needs of biomechanical comprehension and analysis to obtain various medical treatment designs which are related with the spine in order to cure and diagnose LBP patients, the FE modeling and nonlinear analysis of lumbosacrum including a partial ilium and iliolumbar ligaments, were carried out. First, we investigated whether the geometrical configuration of vertebrae displayed by DICOM slice files is regular and normal condition. After constructing spinal vertebrae including a partial ilium, a sacrum and five lumbars (from L1 to L5)with anatomical shape reconstructed using softwares such as image modeler and CAD modeler, we added iliolumbar ligaments, lumbar ligaments, discs and facet joints, etc.. And also, we assigned material property and discretized the model using proper finite element types, thus it was completely modeled through the above procedure. For the verification of each segment, average sagittal ROM, average coronal ROM and average transversal ROM under various loading conditions(${\pm}10Nm$), average vertical displacement under compression(400N), ALL(Anterior Longitudinal Ligament) and PLL(Posterior Longitudinal Ligament) force at L12 level, strains of seven ligaments on sagittal plane at L45 level and maximal strain of disc fibers according to various loading conditions at L45 level, etc., they were compared with experimental results. For the verification of multilevel-lumbosacrum spine including partial ilium and iliolumbar ligaments, the cases with and without iliolumbar ligaments were compared with ROM of experiment. The results were obtained from analysis of the verified FE model as follows: I) Iliolumbar ligaments played a stabilizing role as mainly posterior iliolumbar ligaments under flexion and as both posterior and anterior iliolumbar ligaments of one side under lateral bending. 2) The iliolumbar ligaments decreased total ROM of 1-8% in total model according to various motion conditions, which changed facet contact forces of L5S level by approximately 0.8-1.4 times and disc forces of L5S level by approximately 0.8-1.5 times more than casewithout ilioligaments, under various loading conditions. 3) The force of lower discs such as L45 and L5S was bigger than upper discs under flexion, left and right bending and left and right twisting, except extension. 4) It was predicted that strains of posterior ligaments among iliolumbar ligaments would produce the maximum 16% under flexion and the maximum 10% under twisting. 5) It's expected that this present model applies to the development and design of artificial disc, since it was comparatively in agreement with the experimental datum.

• Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.336-342
• /
• 2019

Purpose: To examine the relationship between the progression of a kyphotic deformity and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in conservatively treated osteoporotic thoracolumbar compression fracture patients. Materials and Methods: This study categorized the patients who underwent conservative treatment among those patients who underwent treatment under the suspicion of a thoracolumbar compression fracture from January 2007 to March 2016. Among them, this retrospective study included eighty-nine patients with osteoporosis and osteopenia with a bone density of less than -2.0 and single vertebral body fracture. This study examined the MRI of anterior longitudinal ligament or posterior longitudinal ligament injury, superior or inferior endplate disruption, superior of inferior intravertebral disc injury, the presence of low signal intensity on T2-weighted images, and bone edema of intravertebral bodies in fractured intravertebral bodies. Results: In cases where the superior endplate was disrupted or the level of bone edema of the intravertebral bodies was high, the kyphotic angle, wedge angle, and anterior vertebral compression showed remarkably progression. In the case of damage to the anterior longitudinal ligament or the superior disc, only the kyphotic angle was markedly prominent. On the T2-weighted images, low signal intensity lesions showed a high wedge angle and high anterior vertebral compression. On the other hand, there were no significant correlations among the posterior longitudinal ligament injury, inferior endplate disruption, inferior disc injury, and the progression of kyphotic deformity and vertebral compression. The risk factors that increase the kyphotic angle by more than 5° include the presence of injuries to the anterior longitudinal ligament, superior endplate disruption, and superior disc injury, and the risk factors were 21.3, 5.1, and 8.5 times higher than those of the uninjured case, and the risk differed according to the level of bone edema. Conclusion: An osteoporotic thoracolumbar compression fracture in osteoporotic or osteopenic patients, anterior longitudinal ligament injury, superior endplate and intravertebral disc injury, and high level of edema in the MRI were critical factors that increases the risk of kyphotic deformity.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.451-455
• /
• 2001

Objectives : There have been several studies documenting the changing level of the conus throughout infancy and childhood, but there is only a little detailed study that documents the range of conus positions in a living adult population, especially in Korean, without spinal deformity. Methods : we made a sequential study of magnetic resonance images of the lumbar spine to determine the variation in position of the conus medullaris in 650 living korean adults population without spinal deformity who checked MRI to identify the cause of low back pain. The study population consisted of patients over the age of 16 years. A T1-weighted, midline, sagittal image was reviewed for identifying the postion of conus. This location was recorded in relation to the upper, middle, or lower third of the adjacent vertebral body or the adjacent intervertebral disc. Results : The study group consisted of 305 men(47%) and 345 women(53%) with a mean age 45.9 years(range, 16-79 years). The conus existed commonly at the middle third of L1(131cases, 20.2%), at the L1-2 intervertebral space(129cases, 19.8%), and the lower third of L1(123cases, 18.9%). The mean position of conus was the lower third of L1(range, middle third of T12 to middle third of L3). Conclusions : The mean position of conus was at the lower third of L1(range, middle third of T12 to middle third of L3). This results was same as that of foreign study. Our results of living korean adult population could allow for safe clinical procedures such as lumbar puncture, spinal anesthesia, and help to explain the differences among observed neurologic injuries from fracture-dislocation at the thoracolumbar junction.