<p><i>Study Design</i>: A randomized controlled multicenter trial with 8-year follow-up.</p> <p><i>Objective</i>: The aim of this study was to assess the long-term development of adjacent disc degeneration (ADD) after lumbar total disc replacement (TDR) or nonoperative treatment, and to analyze the association between ADD development and clinical outcome.</p> <p><i>Summary of Background ...

Background: <br>A previous randomised controlled trial (RCT) of patients with chronic low back pain (LBP) and vertebral bone marrow (Modic) changes (MCs) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), reported that a 3-month, high-dose course of antibiotics had a better effect than placebo at 12 months’ follow-up. The present study examines the effects of antibiotic treatment in chronic LBP patients with ...

Purpose - The aim was to describe magnetic resonance imaging findings in patients planned for lumbar spinal stenosis surgery. Further, to describe possible associations between MRI findings and patient characteristics with patient reported disability or pain.<p> <p>Methods - The NORDSTEN spinal stenosis trial included 437 patients planned for surgical decompression of LSS. The following MRI ...

<p><i>Background - </i>Spinal stenosis is a clinical diagnosis in which the main symptom is pain radiating to the lower extremities, or neurogenic claudication. Radiological spinal stenosis is commonly observed in the population and it is debated whether patients with no lower extremity pain should be labelled as having spinal stenosis. However, these patients is found in the Norwegian Registry for ...

<i>Purpose</i> - To investigate changes in dural sac area after three different posterior decompression techniques in patients undergoing surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis.<p><p> <i>Summary of background data</i> - Decompression of the nerve roots is the main surgical treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis. The aim of this study was to radiologically investigate three commonly used posterior ...

<i>Importance</i> - Conflicting evidence and large practice variation are present in the surgical treatment of degenerative spondylolisthesis. More than 90% of surgical procedures in the United States include instrumented fusion compared with 50% or less in other countries.<p> <p><i>Objective</i> - To evaluate whether the effectiveness of microdecompression alone is noninferior to decompression ...

Background: The need for cost effectiveness analyses in randomized controlled trials that compare treatment options is increasing. The selection of the optimal utility measure is important, and a central question is whether the two most commonly used indexes - the EuroQuol 5D (EQ5D) and the Short Form 6D (SF6D) – can be used interchangeably. The aim of the present study was to compare change ...

BACKGROUND In patients with lumbar spinal stenosis and degenerative spondylolisthesis, it is uncertain whether decompression surgery alone is noninferior to decompression with instrumented fusion. METHODS We conducted an open-label, multicenter, noninferiority trial involving patients with symptomatic lumbar stenosis that had not responded to conservative management and who had single-level ...

<p><i>Objective - </i>To assess the efficacy of three months of antibiotic treatment compared with placebo in patients with chronic low back pain, previous disc herniation, and vertebral endplate changes (Modic changes). <p><i>Design - </i>Double blind, parallel group, placebo controlled, multicentre trial. <p><i>Setting - </i>Hospital outpatient clinics at six hospitals in Norway. <p><i>Participants ...

Background: <br> Evidence is lacking on whether fat infiltration in the multifidus muscles affects outcomes after total disc replacement (TDR) surgery and if it develops after surgery. The aims of this study were 1) to investigate whether pre-treatment multifidus muscle fat infiltration predicts outcome 2 years after treatment with TDR surgery or multidisciplinary rehabilitation, and 2) to compare ...