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Objectives: The authors aim to present when to do physical therapy or surgery in geriatric patients with degenerative lumbar stenosis., Methods: The authors retrospectively analyzed 250 patients who underwent physical therapy due to lumbar degenerative stenosis between December 2014 and April 2017. The patients were divided into two groups: Central canal stenosis and lateral recess/foraminal stenosis groups. Visual analogue scale and neurological claudication values of both patient groups were evaluated before and after physical therapy. The association between comorbid diseases and the frequency of surgery was also evaluated., Results: 142 of the patients were female and 108 were male, and the mean age of these patients was 69 years. The mean onset of symptoms was 55 months. In the visual analog scale value of patients after physical therapy, the authors observed decreases of 4-6° in patients with central canal stenosis and 2-3° in patients with lateral recess/foraminal stenosis. In addition, the authors observed that patients with lateral recess/foraminal stenosis together with diabetes mellitus benefit less from physical therapy., Conclusion: Physical therapy and rehabilitation play an important role in the treatment of lumbar stenosis. Physical therapy is the primary treatment option for patients who do not have motor muscle strength losses and incontinence and who have pain control through medications. The authors can consider surgical interventions in patients with lateral recess/foraminal stenosis who do not benefit from physical therapy at a satisfactory level.

Fibrous dysplasia (FD) is a rare, benign disease of unclear etiology where normal bone is replaced with abnormal fibrous and weak osseous tissue. Any bone of the skeleton might be involved but skull is one of the most commonly affected sites. Fibrous dysplasia is known to be caused by a genetic mutation leading to inappropriate proliferation and differentiation of osteoblastic cells. However; it is not known whether any triggering factor exists which might contribute to this genetic mutation. The authors postulated that trauma might be a triggering factor for this disease. Trauma, as a triggering factor, has not been reported to be clearly linked to FD in the literature so far. Through this perspective; the authors report a patient of fronto-orbital fibrous dysplasia developing 6 years after a fronto-orbital skull fracture, at the same localization of the fracture line.

Aim: Our aim was to determine whether a combination of sagittal index (SI), canal compromise (CC), and loss of vertebral body height (LVBH) is associated with the severity of neurological injury in patients with thoracolumbar burst fractures., Materials and Methods: Seventy-four patients with thoracolumbar burst fracture undergoing instrumentation between 2010 and 2015 were analyzed retrospectively. The degree of neurological injury was determined using the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) scoring system. The association between the morphology of the fracture and the severity of neurological injury was analyzed., Results: There was a strong association between fracture morphology and the severity of neurological injury. Of the patients, 77.5% with SI ≥20°, 81.6% with CC ≥40%, and 100% with LVBH ≥50% had lesion according to ASIA. All of 7 patients with ASIA A had SI ≥20°, CC ≥40%, and LVBH ≥50%. On the other hand, 79% of the patients with ASIA E had SI <20°, 83.7% of the patients with ASIA E had CC <40%, and all of the patients with ASIA E had LVBH <50%. SI, CC, and LVBH were lower in neurologically intact patients (ASIA E), whereas they were higher in patients with neurological deficits (ASIA A, B, C, D) ( P = 0.001; P < 0.01). These measurements had 100% negative predictive values and relatively high positive predictive values., Conclusion: SI, CC, and LVBH are significantly associated with the severity of neurological injury in patients with thoracolumbar burst fractures. The patients with SI >25°, the patients with CC >40%, and the patients with LVBH >50% are likely to have a more severe neurological injury., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

Lumbar spinal arachnoiditis occurring after diagnostic lumbar puncture is a very rare condition. Arachnoiditis may also present with fever and elevated infection markers and may mimic epidural abscess, which is one of the well known infectious complications of lumbar puncture. We report the case of a 56-year-old man with lumbar spinal arachnoiditis occurring after diagnostic lumbar puncture who was operated on under a misdiagnosis of epidural abscess. In the intraoperative and postoperative microbiological and histopathological examination, no epidural abscess was detected. To our knowledge, this is the first case of a patient with postlumbar puncture arachnoiditis operated on under a misdiagnosis of epidural abscess reported in the literature. The authors suggest that arachnoiditis may mimic epidural abscess due to its clinical and radiological features and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of complications of lumbar puncture.

Objective: To report a case of subdural haematoma occurring as an extremely rare and life-threatening complication of cochlear implantation, and to explore the causative association between intracranial haemorrhage and cochlear implantation surgical techniques. This association has not previously been reviewed in depth., Case Report: A three-year-old boy was diagnosed with a large subdural haematoma, one week after cochlear implantation. After emergency evacuation of the haematoma, the patient made an excellent recovery and was discharged from hospital without any neurological deficit., Results: Mechanisms of injury are discussed and the literature reviewed, focusing on the possible causes of intracranial haemorrhage identified after cochlear implantation. Notably, bone drilling had been used in all reported cases, and the probable causative injury had always occurred after such drilling., Conclusion: The issue of bone drilling during cochlear implantation is raised, and alternative methods of implant housing suggested, in order to avoid intracranial haemorrhage.