A report presented at EUROSPINE 2019 shows that decompression surgery remains the ‘gold-standard’ for lumbar spinal stenosis. A long-term study looking at decompression surgery versus stand-alone interspinous process devices in the treatment of spinal stenosis was reported at EUROSPINE 2019. The results demonstrate that even though implantation of a stand-alone interspinous process device (IPD) can [...]
Horatio’s Garden has just announced that Princess Eugenie has become the charity’s Royal Patron. Her Royal Highness will be supporting the charity’s vision of bringing thriving gardens to all the UK’s regional spinal injuries centres. As many people know, Princess Eugenie had corrective spinal surgery for her scoliosis when she was 12 years old at [...]
The past week has been Back Pain Awareness Week 2019 and the focus this year has been on education. BackCare has run a campaign targeted at children and young people with an aim to educate them on how to look after their spines whilst they are young which will hopefully prevent them from developing [...]
A new, alternative intro-operative technology for imaging patients, called the Loop-X was unveiled at the North American Spine Society (NASS) 2019 conference last week by a company called BrainLab. It is still in the testing stage and has not yet been approved by the FDA in America or any authority elsewhere in the world and [...]
Scientists at the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre have identified cells that can heal damaged tissue and may be used to help heal damaged tissues and treat diseases. These cells are found in large numbers all over our body and have most probably played an important role in the survival of both humans [...]
Helsinki University Hospital in Finland has just announce that it has received significant funding from the Wings for Life Foundation to continue its research into spinal cord injury rehabilitation using Nexstim’s SmartFocusTM technology. Nexstim Plc is a targeted neuromodulation company who are developing navigated, personalised and non-invasive brain stimulation systems for diagnostics and therapy for [...]
Scientists at the University of Michigan have developed an injection, like an epi-pen, designed to be used at the time of trauma to spinal cord. The injection contains nanoparticles that can prevent the body’s immune system from overreacting to the trauma, potentially preventing some spinal cord injuries from resulting in paralysis. Any kind [...]
Researchers from the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of Queensland in Australia, have been studying how animal venoms and toxins affect the wasabi pain receptors in the body. The human body has lots of different nerve cell receptors and the ‘wasabi receptor’ is a specific receptor on pain nerve [...]
Outcome data and studies are constantly being looked at to try and improve the management and outcome of spinal trauma in high income countries like the UK. We know, for example, that the ‘time’ from injury to treatment is one of the key factors. You may have heard of the “golden hour”? The golden [...]
‘Spinal News International’ (September 2019) reports on a survey carried on 1000 US women (aged 35 - 60) conducted by S-I Bone to help them better understand public awareness of sacro-iliac joint (SIJ) dysfunction as a major cause of low back pain. SIJ dysfunction is reported to account for 15 - 30% of all [...]
