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Introduction: Due to the prevalence of degenerative diseases among middle-aged and elderly people who undergo surgery, it is very important to evaluate the clinical consequences of these patients who have undergone surgery. This research aimed to investigate the relationship between modic changes and fast effusion and its relationship with clinical, functional and lumbar spine outcomes in patients undergoing surgery for degenerative disorders. Materials and methods: In this study, all patients over 30 years of age who will be admitted to Shahid Chamran Hospital between 1996 and 1999 due to lumbar degenerative causes for spinal surgery were studied. After 6 months, patients underwent clinical examination and imaging and the extent of modic changes and fast effusion as well as clinical consequences and spinal stability was investigated. Results: There was a significant difference in the amount of pain before and after surgery (p <0.001). No significant relationship was observed between thyroid modicum, vacuum sign, laminectomy level and discectomy with spinal instability (P> 0.05). Also, there was no significant difference in terms of Dynamic T between the two groups(P> 0.05) but there was a significant difference between Dynamic A between the two groups. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that lumbar degenerative surgery is not associated with spinal instability. It is suggested that in future studies, patients with spinal instability be retrospectively examined with a larger sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Retrograde transport to the alpha motoneurons causes spinal degeneration. The neurotrophic factor (NT3) increases the number of myelinated axons in the dorsal root, leads to differentiation and survival of sensory neurons, parasympathetic motoneurons and prevents cell death. Lavender is a plant in the family Lamiaceae which is reported to have antioxidant, antispasmodic, diuretic, anti-asthmatic, refrigerant, and antipyretic effects. This study examined NT3 gene expression changes after sciatic nerve compression in rats, in the presence of Lavandula officinalis extract. Materials and Methods: Lavender Soxhlet hydroalcoholic extraction was prepared. 36 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups including control, compression and treatment (compression group + hydroalcoholic extract of Lavender injections 75mg/kg) groups. In controls the muscle was opened without damage to gain access to the sciatic nerve. In compression and treatment groups, the sciatic nerve (right leg) was compressed. The extract was injected intraperitoneally in two occasions. A biopsy was taken from the spinal cord segments L4-L6 on day 28, total RNA was extracted and cDNA was synthesized and NT3 gene expression changes were analyzed by ANOVA test by using SPSS software. Results: The results showed that NT3 gene expression had a significant reduction in compression group compared to the control group (p<0.001) and it had a significant increase in treatment group compared with the compression group (p<0.001). Conclusion: A significant increase in gene expression shows that Lavandula officinalis hydroalcoholic extract improves nerve regeneration via NT3 gene expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low back pain (LBP) is a common and complicated disorder which is influenced by a number of factors, among them is the lack of spinal stability provided by muscle contraction. One of the most important muscles which has a role in spinal stability is musculus transversus abdominis. A literature search for the period of 2000-11 was performed in PubMed, ProQuest, Science Direct, Thomson, EMBASE, OVID, CINAHL and MEDLINE databases using musculus Transversus Abdominis, ultrasonography, chronic nonspecific low back pain as keywords. Nineteen articles were selected according to the inclusion criteria of the study. Evidences demonstrated that thickness of transversus abdominis reduces in patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain (LBP) and ultrasonography seemed to be a valid and highly reliable instrument for measuring thickness of transversus abdominis in patients with LBP and healthy subjects on different positions and states. Studies demonstrated that there are adequate evidences to confirm the merit of ultrasonography in the assessment of musculus transversus abdominis in patients with chronic LBP and healthy subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: Patients with lower back pain prefer to get treated by noninvasive techniques. The goal of this study was to examine the impact of foot reflexology on reducing lower back pain caused by discopathy. Materials and Methods: This semi-empirical study was conducted on 30 men suffering from back pain diagnosed with discopathy with a mean age of 30 ±5 years and BMI scores of 18-25. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups of 15 and classified as test and control. The pain intensity was measured both prior to and after the procedure using VAS. The reflexology protocol during fifteen 30-minute sessions (one every other day for a month) was performed on the test subjects. During this period, the control group received no treatment. Data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics, especially paired t-test, using the SPSS software. Results: Our findings show a significant effectiveness of foot reflexology on the reduction of lower back pain in discopathy (P< 0.05) and also indicate a significant difference between the mean pain intensities between the test and control groups before and after the procedure (P< 0.05). Conclusion: Foot reflexology appears to be an effective technique for reducing the lower back pain caused by discopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]