Hwan Eo

The authors hypothesized that the placement of the interspinous implant would show a similar clinical outcome to the posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) in patients having spinal stenosis with mild segmental instability and that this method would be superior to PLIF without significantly affecting degeneration at the adjacent segments. Forty two adult patients having degenerative spinal stenosis with mild segmental instabilit who underwent implantation of CoflexTM (Spine motion, Germany) or

Objective : Spinal cord hemangioblastoma is an uncommon vascular neoplasm with a benign nature and is associated with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease in 20-30% of patients. Total removal of these tumors without significant neurological deficit remains a great challenge. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of VHL mutation analysis and to evaluate surgical outcome of patients with spinal cord hemangioblastomas. Methods : This study included nine patients treated for spinal co

Objective : To report a minimally invasive treatment option using percutaneous pedicle screw fixation with adjuvant treatment for metastatic thoraco-lumbar and lumbar spinal tumors. Methods : This is a retrospective study of charts of patients with spinal metastases. All were older than 18 years of age and were considered to havemore than 3 months of life expectancy. The patients had single or two level lesions, and compression fracture or impending fracture. Exclusion criterionwas metastasis sh

Objective : Recently, the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been prolonged with improvements in various diagnostic tools and medical treatment modalities. Consequently, spine metastases from HCC are being diagnosed more frequently. The accurate prediction of prognosis plays a critical role in determining a patient’s treatment plan, including surgery for patients with spinal metastases of HCC. We investigated the clinical features, surgical outcomes, and prognostic fact

We report a case of pseudoaneurysm of the parietal division of the superficial temporal artery (STA) secondary to iatrogenic head injury due to Gardner traction. A 54-year-old man presented with a pulsatile, cystic, and painless mass in the right anterior temporal region which developed three weeks after head fixation via Gardner traction. At the time of discovery, the mass was 10 mm in diameter, compressible and disappeared after manual compression of the proximal STA. A bruit was audible over

Candida is a relatively rare cause of spinal infections that commonly affects immunocompromised patients. A 70-year-old woman, who underwent a lumbar discectomy on L5-S1 two months earlier, was admitted to our department complaining of persistent back and leg pain. Magnetic resonance imaging showed irregular enhancing mass lesion in L5-S1 intervertebral space, suggest of pyogenic discitis with epidural abscess. The surgery was performed via retroperitoneal approach and the infected material at L

Idiopathic hypertrophic spinal pachymeningitis (IHSP) is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory disorder characterized by marked fibrosis of the spinal dura mater with unknown etiology. According to the location of the lesion, it might induce neurologic deficits by compression of spinal cord and nerve root. A 58-year old female with a 3-year history of progressive weakness in both lower extremities was referred to our institute. Spinal computed tomography (CT) scan showed an osteolytic lesion invo

Objective: To compare overall survival (OS) in patients with cervical spine metastases between initial radiotherapy followed by surgery and initial surgery followed by radiotherapy. Methods: The medical records of 36 patients with cervical spine metastases from January 2007 to December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. These patients were divided into 2 groups. Group 1 included patients who underwent initial radiotherapy followed by surgery, while group 2 included patients who underwent initia

We report a case of a non traumatic spinal subdural hematoma or subarachnoid hematoma manifesting as lumbago, leg pain and bladder dysfunction that showed angiographically occult vascular malformation (AOVM). Although the spinal angiogram did not reveal any vascular abnormality, the follow-up magnetic resonance image showed AOVM. Complete surgical removal was performed due to the aggravated bladder dysfunction. This case highlights the need to consider bleeding due to spinal AOVM, even when angi

Pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) is a benign proliferative joint disease with an uncertain etiology that uncommonly involves the spine. We present a case of PVNS involving the lumbar spine. A 38-year-old male developed back pain and pain in both legs caused by a mass in the L4 region of the right lamina. After gross total tumor removal, the symptoms improved. The pathological finding was synovial hyperplasia with accumulation of hemosiderin- laden macrophages. He was diagnosed with PVNS a

Sporadic osseous hemangioblastomas in the vertebra are extremely rare and they can be misdiagnosed as a vertebral hemangioma or metastasis in imaging studies. We report an intraosseous hemangioblastoma that arose from the 11th thoracic vertebra and was diagnosed initially as a metastasis in a patient with renal cell carcinoma. Diagnosis, surgical treatment and adjuvant radiosurgery of such case in reference to the literature are discussed.

Sarcoidosis is a systemic disease of unknown etiology that may affect any organ in the body. The nervous system is involved in 5–16% of cases of sarcoidosis. Here, we report a case of intramedullary sarcoidosis presenting with delayed spinal cord swelling after laminoplasty for the treatment of compressive cervical myelopathy. A 56-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital complaining of upper extremity pain and gait disturbance. The patient had undergone laminoplasty for compressive cervical

Objective : The cervicothoracic junction (CTJ) is a biomechanically and anatomically complex region that has traditionally posed problems for surgicalaccess. In this retrospective study, we describe our clinical experiences of the treatment of metastatic spinal tumors at the CTJ and the results. Methods : From June 2006 to December 2011, 23 patients who underwent surgery for spinal tumors involving the CTJ were enrolled in our study. All of the patients were operated on through the posterior app

Objective : The aim of this study is to implement a critical pathway (CP) for patients undergoing lumbar laminectomy or microdiscectomy and describe the results before and after the CP in terms of length of hospital stay and cost. Methods : From March 2008 to February 2009, 61 patients underwent lumbar laminectomy or microdiscectomy due to stenosis or one- or two-level disc herniation in our department and were included in the prepathway group. After development and implementation of the CP in M