1. Zhang Q, Raoof M, et al. Circulating mitochondrial DAMPs cause inflammatory responses to injury. Nature (letters) Vol 464,4 March 2010. You will need a glossary for this paper: DAMP = ‘damage’-associated molecular pattern. Cellular disruption by trauma will release mitochondrial DAMPs with evolutionarily conserved similarities to bacterial ‘pathogen-associated molecular patterns’ into the circulation which signal through innate immune pathways (identical to those activated in sepsis) to create a sepsis-like state. Or just read #2 paper below for a translation of the findings to something understandable by mortals.
2. Manfredi AA, Rovere-Querini P. The Mitochondrion — A Trojan Horse That Kicks Off Inflammation? N Engl J Med 362;22 June 3, 2010. Oh, that’s what the Zhang paper is talking about!
3. Severino M, Schwartz ES et al. Congenital tumors of the central nervous system. Neuroradiology 2010;52:531–548. Very nice review article with excellent image quality. The infantile GBM appearance was new to me.
4. Hanley EN, Herkowitz HN et al. Debating the Value of Spine Surgery. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2010;92:1293-304. Pro and con viewpoints on two questions: 1) Did the NIH get its $15 million worth in the SPORT study? 2) Does spine surgery for low back pain work? One interesting factoid is that the SPORT web site shows 27 articles published (May 2009), indicating an expense of >$500,000 per article…ouch.
5. Hyung Lee J, Durand R et al. Global and local fMRI signals driven by neurons defined optogenetically by type and wiring. Nature (letters) Vol 465, 10 June 2010. I’ll admit that the Wikipedia article on “optogenetics” helped me a lot in semi-understanding this paper. Seems like neurons really are the source of the BOLD signal.
6. Berry MR, Peterson BG, Alander DH. A Granulomatous Mass Surrounding a Maverick Total Disc Replacement Causing Iliac Vein Occlusion and Spinal Stenosis. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2010; 92:1242-5. Nasty looking mass centered on the TDR with thecal sac compression and iliac thrombosis requiring IVC filter and lumbar decompressive laminectomy.
7. Schotanus M, van Middendorp JJ et al. Isolated Transverse Process Fractures of the Subaxial Cervical Spine: A Clinically Insignificant Injury or Not?: A Prospective, Longitudinal Analysis in a Consecutive High-Energy Blunt Trauma Population. Spine 2010 May 14. [Epub ahead of print]. Incidence of isolated transverse process fractures in blunt trauma patients was 2.4%. There were no clinical signs of vertebral artery involvement in this group and none of the patients had spinal cord injury. Isolated transverse process fractures of the subaxial cervical spine can be considered as clinically insignificant.
8. Ohtori S, Yamashita M et al. Low Back Pain After Lumbar Discectomy in Patients Showing Endplate Modic Type 1 Change. Spine Vol 35, Number 13, E596–E600. Low back pain in patients with disc herniation appears to mainly originate from disc or nerve root compression, and decompression surgery without fusion is an option for these patients, even those with Modic type 1 changes.
9. Bartels RHMA, Donk R et al. No Justification for Cervical Disk Prostheses in Clinical Practice: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Neurosurgery 66:1153-1160, 2010. Nine articles with 1533 patients analyzed with the conclusion: “Therefore, these costly devices should not be used in daily clinical practice.”
10. Garrett MP, Kakarla U et al. Formation of Painful Seroma and Edema After the Use of Recombinant Human Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 in Posterolateral Lumbar Spine Fusions. Neurosurgery 66:1044-1049, 2010. 4.6% of 130 patients who had lumbar fusion with rhBMP returned to the OR for exploration of sterile seroma. The authors recommend not using BMP for routine posterolateral lumbar fusions.
11. Kakarla U, Beres EJ et al. Microsurgical Treatment of Pediatric Intracranial Aneurysms: Long-term Angiographic and Clinical Outcomes. Neurosurgery 67: 1-13, 2010. Follow up of 72 aneurysms treated in 48 patients. Annual recurrence rate was 2.6% and rate of de novo formation or growth was 7.8%.
12. Zuccoli G, Siddiqui N et al. Neuroimaging findings in pediatric Wernicke encephalopathy: a review. Neuroradiology 2010;52:523–529. Particularly informative section at the end on the differential diagnostic considerations.
13. Memtsoudis SG, Vougioukas VI et al. Perioperative Morbidity and Mortality After Anterior (ASF), Posterior (PSF), and Anterior/Posterior Spine Fusion Surgery (APSF). Spine 2010, May 5 [Epub ahead of print]. Evaluation of over 1 million hospitalizations for primary spine fusion (noncervical) found that procedure-related complications was 18.68% among ASF, 15.72% in PSF, and 23.81% in APSF patients. In-hospital mortality rates after APSF were approximately twice those of PSF.
14. Sakai T, Sairyo K et al. Significance of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signal Change in the Pedicle in the Management of Pediatric Lumbar Spondylolysis. Spine Vol 35, Number 14, E641–E645. Increased T2 signal disappeared in most pedicles on the 3-month follow-up MRI. In patients who did not comply with treatment, the signal change tended to last longer. 3 month MR will indicate whether or not conservative treatment is successful.
