The effect of prior back surgery on surgical outcome in patients operated on for lumbar spinal stenosis a matched-pair study

Summary It has been widely observed that the outcome after repeat lumbar surgery is rarely comparable to that of primary surgery. In particular, the results of repeat surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) have not been favourable. We used a matched-pair format in an attempt to decrease the confounding factors so as to determine as exactly as possible the effect of prior back surgery on the LSS patients surgical outcome. The matching criteria were sex, age, myelographic findings, major symptom, and duration of symptoms. From one group of 251 patients without prior back surgery (SO patients) and another of fifty-three patients with one preceding back operation (RS patients), forty-one similar matched patients pairs (one SO and one RS-patient) were formed.There were 8 female and 33 male pairs. The mean age of the SO patients was 51.6 and of the RS patient 51.4 years, and the mean follow-up time was 4.6 and 4.4 years. The assessment of outcome was based on a subjective disability questionnaire. The SO patients fared significantly better than the RS patients (32.1 versus 41.3, P = 0.026). A short time interval between operations in the RS patients had a worsening effect on outcome, but this trend was not significant.We concluded that one preceding back operation had a worsening effect on the outcome of patients operated on for LSS. As a whole, the results of RS patients were unfavourable. The proper time for achieving good surgical results in LSS patients is the initial operation.     

Autosomal dominant juvenile vitreoretinal degeneration and retinal detachment

To study the inheritance and clinical picture of a new form of vitreoretinal dystrophy I examined 18 family members of a family with six generations. Seven patients, three male and four female, in three consecutive generations were observed to be affected indicating autosomal dominant inheritance. The disease was characterized by juvenile degeneration of the vitreous with detachment of the vitreous body and some floating vitreous opacities, cystoid degeneration of the peripheral retina with whitish glistening stippled areas of superficial retinal degeneration, spotty hyperpigmentation, patches of retinal atrophy with pigmentations, occasional atrophic retinal holes, and in four family members at the age of 4 to 12 years, unilateral or bilateral retinal detachment with breaks in the peripheral retina. Most patients had hyperopia with or without astigmatism. In eyes without detached retina, the disease did not show any marked progression, the lens was clear, the posterior fundus and the retinal and choroidal vessels were normal, and the visual acuity, visual fields, dark adaptation, colour vision, electroretinograms, and visually evoked response findings were normal.     

Phage types and genotypes of Shiga toxin-Producing Escherichia coli O157 in Finland

This study examined Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157, using phage typing, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and typing of Shiga toxin variant genes by PCR with restriction fragment length polymorphism in an epidemiological survey of STEC O157 isolated from humans in Finland between 1990 and 1999.