Iranian Journal of Neurosurgery
Volume:1 Issue: 4, Autumn 2015

Low back pain is broadly documented as one of the most widespread pathologies in the advanced domain. Although the reasons of low back pain are uncountable, it has been meaningfully related to intervertebral disc degeneration. Present therapies for Intervertebral Disc (IVD) degeneration such as physical therapy and spinal fusion reduce symptom's severity, but do not treat the source of degeneration. The use of tissue engineering to treat disc degeneration offers a chance to control the pathological course. New methods are presently being examined and have exposed mixed results. One major way of study has been stem cell injections. We go on to define the course of stem cell-mediated modalities in treatment of degenerative lumbar disc herniation.
Methods & Materials/Patients: Literature search was performed in electronic databases PUBMED and EMBASE by means of Mesh terminologies (Nucleus pulposus, therapeutics, annulus fibrosus, intervertebral disc) and keywords (Degenerative disk disease, Stem Cells, Therapy).
The intervertebral disc organization, developing treatments, mesenchymal stem cells, embryonic stem cells, practice in disc degeneration were some sections that were found in analysis for study review design.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have revealed potential in small animal models, nonetheless consequences in greater vertebrates have been varied.

Acute injuries of the spine and spinal cord are causing the greatest amount of disability. They produce high cost outcomes for patients and society psychologically and economically. Knowing the epidemiology of these injuries play an important role in planning for prevention and conservative treatment. But now, we have little information about this in our country. The aim of this study was to determine epidemiology of spinal injury in Sari Imam Khomeini hospital, main trauma center of Mazandaran, an Iranian province.
Methods & Materials/Patients: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on all cases of traumatic spine injury, who were admitted in Sari Imam Khomeini hospital, main trauma center of Mazandaran, during 2012-2014. Checklist included demographic characteristics (age, gender, location), mechanism of injury of the spine, the level of injury detected by radiologic imaging and MRI and CT scans, the scoring systems for assessing the severity of injury that were American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) scale and The Injury Severity Score.
Among a total of 906 cases, 57.8% (n=523) were male and 42.2% ( (n=383) were female. Male/Female ratio was 1.37:1. The most common age group at which spinal injury occurred in males was 25-44 years-old, and in females was 45-64 years-old (P=0.044). The most frequent causative mechanism of trauma was traffic accidents (especially motorcycle-caused accidents). The most common injury in spine fracture was compression and burst types. Among 93 patients with abnormal findings on neurological examination, 45 of them had complete spinal cord injury (class A of ASIA) and 48 of them had incomplete spinal cord injury (class B, C, D of ASIA).
Motor vehicles accidents are the most common cause of spine and spinal cord injury in Mazandaran,a region of the North of Iran. The incidence of spinal cord injury is high if ISS is more than 12.

Colloid cyst of the third ventricle is a rare intracranial benign tumor. Traditionally, treatment is carried out by transcallosal or transcortical transventricular approach. Currently, the endoscopic treatment of these lesions is increasingly used. We reported our preliminary experience about three cases of colloid cysts treated by neuroendoscopy.
Methods and Patients: We conducted a retrospective study on the analysis of medical records of three patients with colloid cyst who had been operated endoscopically in our department. We used a rigid neuroendoscope of 2.7 mm in diameter, with an optical 30°. Coagulation of the wall, followed by a puncture aspiration of cystic contents and partial resection of its wall were performed during the surgery. The mean follow-up time was two years.
Patients were 35, 47, and 53 years old. They were male. The dominant clinical symptom was headaches with consciousness disorder. Brain MRI allowed the diagnosis in all cases. The mean operation time was 100 minutes. A case of intraoperative hemorrhage was observed, necessitating the installation of an EDV. The outcome was favorable in two patients, and after surgery we observed one case of meningitis treated. One case of transient amnesia and one death were reported.
Preliminary results of endoscopic treatment of colloid cysts were encouraging. It is a promising technique in our department. However, more investigation is necessary.

Background & Importance: Hydatid disease of the spine is rare but constitutes approximately 50% of bone involvement cases in human hydatidosis. It is a severe condition associated with a high rate of morbidity, disability and mortality.
In the present paper, we report an intriguing case of cervical spinal hydatid disease mimicking traumatic burst fracture.
A high degree of suspicion combined with good-quality neuroimaging is important for early and correct diagnosis. Because of the location and the potential for progression, spinal hydatid disease surgical treatment is the mainstay of treatment.

Thermal ablation by microwave (MWA) has proven efficacy in treatment of primary and metastatic cancers. Soft tissue tumors could be ablated completely using MWA. However, bony tissue metastasis particularly spinal vertebral metastasis ablation has not reported yet.
A 50 year old male patient with primary diagnosed colon cancer undergone surgical resection of tumor. Recently, he was diagnosed with metastasis to liver and spinal vertebral bone. He was referred to pain clinic with severe non-radiating back pain. In MRI Imaging, hyperdensity lesions were identified on body of L5 and T12 and in spinal canal of L1 indicating metastatic involvement. Under fluoroscopy guidance, the metastatic tumor was ablated by MWA and the generator was powered to 20 Watt/3 minutes in the temperature control mode. Patient had no low back pain afterward.
MWA could be used to ablate vertebral bone metastasis without any complications and with good prognosis