Active clinical trials for "Spinal Stenosis"

Patients with back pain with spinal stenosis of the lower back will be asked to volunteer for this research study. These patients don't need immediate surgery for this problem. Treatment of this kind of back pain with spinal stenosis usually includes physical therapy exercises and steroid injections. Both treatments are usually helpful in patients with back pain with spinal stenosis. However, physicians and other healthcare providers don't know which treatment is better to give first. The purpose of this research is to answer that question. Patients enrolled in this study will receive both treatments: physical therapy (PT) and a steroid injection ("shot"). However, patients may get the shot first followed by PT, or they may have PT first, followed by the shot. Their time in this study will last up to 6 months, and there will be five outcome measurements (via visits or telephone). All study visits will take place at the Atlanta VA Medical Center (Atlanta VA). Investigators hope to enroll about 120 subjects from the Atlanta VA. Enrolled patients will be randomized using a randomization computer program.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether instrumented lumbar fusion provides superior clinical outcomes in comparison to non-instrumented fusion in patients with "static" degenerative spondylolisthesis.

To investigate the effect of different degrees of fat infiltration on rocuronium use in lumbar surgery was monitored by trapezius muscle relaxation.

Spinal stenosis is one of the most common causes of low back pain among older adults and can result in significant disability. Despite this, it still isn't known which treatments are most effective or what outcomes are most important to these older adults. Through a Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) contract, the investigators are building on the existing infrastructure of an AHRQ-funded (ARRA CHOICE award) comparative effectiveness research (CER) trial of epidural steroid injections (ESI) for spinal stenosis (the LESS trial) to address several critical research questions. The proposed study will answer the following key questions. Do decision aids tailored to older adults with spinal stenosis change patient decision-making regarding subsequent treatments? Do patients respond differently at subsequent outcome assessments time-points after receiving tailored decision aids that contain their own individual outcome data from prior treatments? The investigators hypothesize that providing these individualized reports will allow patients to make more informed choices regarding subsequent treatments, leading to reduced use of ineffective treatments and improved outcomes overall.

Aim of the study was to investigate the effect of Kinesio taping application on upper trapezius muscle after cervical spine surgery.

Hypothesis: Topical application of Tranexamic acid into the surgical wound during spine surgery will decrease the overall blood loss post-operatively. This reduction in blood loss will reduce the need for transfusion. In addition it will also significantly reduce the cost of the surgical procedure. Specific Aim 1: The goal of this study is to quantitatively assess whether topical application of tranexamic acid placed into the surgical wound during lumbar spine surgery will decrease post-operative blood loss, thus lowering the need for blood transfusions. By reducing the number of transfusions participants can avoid the well-known complications associated with them. The investigators do not plan on measuring serum tranexamic acid levels. Several meta-analyses and level I studies have shown that intravenous (IV) administration of tranexamic acid is effective in reducing postoperative blood loss and the need for transfusion.

Rationale: Cervical degenerative disc disease (CDDD) is a common cause of cervical radiculopathy, myelopathy or myeloradiculopathy. Surgical treatment is indicated when conservative therapies do not provide sufficient relief or when neurological complaints are progressive. The main surgical techniques are anterior cervical discectomy with (ACDF) or without fusion (ACD), whereas both techniques result in high fusion rates. Short term outcomes of surgery show good clinical results. Long term follow-up shows a drop-in satisfaction rates, often due to the occurrence of new complaints. Pathology is often located at levels adjacent to the previously operated segment, known as adjacent segment disease (ASDis). This is thought to be the results of loss of motion at the previously operated and fused segment. Anterior cervical discectomy with arthroplasty (ACDA) is developed in an effort to reduce the incidence of ASDis by preserving physiological motion in the operated segment. Objective: To investigate physiological motion of the cervical spine the investigators will analyze motion patterns at the long-term in patients who underwent surgical treatment for CDDD, either ACD or ACDA. Study design: Fundamental research. This is a prospective study that includes a cohort of patients previously operated in the setting of a randomized controlled trial. Study population: Adult patients with an indication of surgical treatment for cervical radiculopathy as a consequence of CDDD were enrolled in an RCT between 2007 and 2014 and assigned to undergo ACD or ACDA. Flexion and extension cinematographic recordings of the cervical spine were performed, with the last one at one-year follow-up. The majority of patients in the ACDA group (80%) showed a normal sequence of segmental contribution, which was not the case in the ACD group. This cohort will now be asked to participate in the long-term follow-up study assessing the motion patterns 6-13 years after ACD or ACDA surgery. Intervention: One flexion and extension cinematographic recording of the cervical spine and will be made. Main study parameters/endpoints: The sequence of segmental contributions in sagittal rotation during flexion and extension of the cervical spine will be assessed in the long-term follow-up of surgical treatment. Secondary outcomes will be to assess the amount of degeneration based on the Kellgren Score (KS) and the segmental range of motion (sROM). Long term clinical outcomes will be assessed according to VAS, NDI, SF-36 and Odom's criteria. Patients will be asked whether they have new neurological symptoms and whether they have had a re-operation. Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: Participants receive cinematographic recordings once. The amount of radiation is a negligible risk. There will be no health benefits. There will be no follow-up.

Treatment options for lumbar spinal stenosis include surgical and non-surgical approaches. For most people, the decision depends on how bothered they are by their symptoms and how they feel about having surgery. Since individuals with the same clinical presentation may feel differently about their symptoms and how they view the benefits and harms of their options, there is no agreed upon "best"treatment. It has been shown that, for "preference-sensitive" decisions like this one, decision aids (tools that pair balanced, evidence-based information regarding treatment options with values clarification) improve patients'knowledge and realistic expectations, lower decisional conflict, increase patient involvement in decision making, decrease the number of undecided, and increase agreement between values and choice.1 The Spine Center, in collaboration with the Center for Shared Decision Making (CSDM) at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), has been providing patients with decision aids (DAs) for several years. Hypothesis: Patients identified as having low literacy and/or high decisional conflict after viewing a video decision aid will show greater resolution of their decisional conflict, higher decision self-efficacy and less decision regret if a coaching intervention is paired with a video decision aid. Decision support in the form of coaching develops patients'skills in preparing for a consultation and deliberating about their options.2 A study of women with abnormal uterine bleeding showed that pairing coaching with a DA helped patients clarify their values and preferences, reduced costs, and increased long term satisfaction.3 The investigators plan to assess the impact of coaching in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis who are referred to the CSDM for a video decision aid about their treatment options. The investigators are also interested to learn whether screening for low literacy and high decisional conflict can identify a subgroup of patients who are more likely to benefit from coaching.

Surgical stress induces stress hormone release and sympathetic hyperactivation. Dexmedetomidine has sympatholytic effect and attenuates stress responses. This study investigate the effect of dexmedetomidine on stress responses and autonomic nervous system balance in patients undergoing major spine surgery.

The postoperative pain of lumbar fusion surgery is very severe that it is necessary to use additional analgesics as well as a patient controlled analgesia (PCA). The most common pain control method of this surgery is the intravenous (IV) PCA. but, if it is relatively insufficient amount of narcotic analgesics ,in the case of IV PCA, may be failed to reduce the pain intensity effectively. Consequently, it may result in the a lot of rescue analgesics requirement, which leads to the adverse effects in patients who are very sensitive to narcotic analgesics. In addition, the patient's satisfaction to the PCA may be low compared with that of expected. For the recently released PCA instrument 'PAINSTOP', the investigators can specify the mode setting including total volume, flow rate (basal rate) per hour, bolus dose, and lock out time (LOT). Furthermore, this device can be set to optimize basal infusion (B.I), which is a new mode, so that the administered rate and amount of drug can be increased or decreased according to the patient's use of bolus button. Therefore, this PCA device can be implemented to the conventional mode, and added the function of automatically controlling the basal rate and administered amount of drug according to the use demand of the patient. However, since there are few studies related to this new mode of PCA, more research is needed in patients with postoperative pain.