Scoliosis: Life, Support & Friends

Spinal Cord Spinal cord injury is the most feared complication of spinal surgery. Even when the spinal cord is not exposed, it is at risk for injury during reduction of deformities and during ligation of segmental vessels, which could precipitate an ischemic spinal cord event. Decreased blood flow in the anterior spinal artery can result in infarction of a significant portion of the spinal cord. Disruption of blood flow in the artery of Adamkiewicz often has been implicated in this phenomenon. Cadaveric investigations suggests that the anterior spinal artery typically appears to be a continuous structure. However, because of the wide range in luminal size there may be functional discontinuities in anterior spinal artery blood flow. Because of the changes in diameter (0.23 to 0.94 mm), variability in resistance to flow is likely. This resistance to flow may be as high as 278 times normal in vessels with narrow lumens, resulting in regions of functional hypoperfusion of the spinal cord. ...

Assessment of the centre of pressure pattern and moments about S2 in scoliotic subjects during normal walking Authors: Nachiappan Chockalingam, Surendra Bandi, Aziz Rahmatalla, Peter H Dangerfield and El-Nasri Ahmed Background Research employing gait measurements indicate asymmetries in ground reaction forces and suggest relationships between these asymmetries, neurological dysfunction and spinal deformity. Although, studies have documented the use of centre of pressure (CoP) and net joint moments in gait assessment and have assessed centre of mass (CoM)-CoP distance relationships in clinical conditions, there is a paucity of information relating to the moments about CoM. It is commonly considered that CoM is situated around S2 vertebra in normal upright posture and hence this study uses S2 vertebral prominence as reference point relative to CoM. Purpose To assess and establish, the asymmetry in the CoP pattern and moments about S2 vertebral prominence during level walking and its re...