The use of metallic implants in an infected area of the spine is safe. The metallic implants may not be the “”culprit”" for the persistence or recurrence

of infection.”
“Introduction: The topic of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) has been receiving an enormous amount of interest in recent times; however, this review is not a review of what CIN is, but what it is not.

Methods: We will review the main topics demonstrating that the post hoc ergo propter hoc assumption that renal impairment occurring after contrast medium (CM) infusion is necessarily because of it, is wrong, as we are Lazertinib inhibitor dealing with different diseases, depending on the way the CM is administered and on the type of patient.

Results: After >1,000 often repetitive papers, we must deal with an unacceptably wide range of incidences of CIN, with completely different prognoses and astonishingly conflicting results regarding the efficacy of preventive measures with the exception of hydration. So what went wrong? How to separate tares from wheat? When years ago we challenged the diagnosis of CIN, the words cholesterol embolism had never appeared

in this setting. Now, we can split the possible renal dysfunctions following CM administration into CM-related FK228 ic50 hemodynamic and/or tubular damage, cholesterol embolism, ischemia from acute blood loss or hypotension/hypoperfusion and nephrotoxicity from concomitant drugs.

Conclusions: In a setting regarding millions of patients and millions of dollars/year, in order to clarify the true

renal damage directly related to CM, we ask for prospective studies differentiating cohorts receiving intravenous and intra-arterial, transradial and transfemoral injections, and clinically relevant renal outcomes, thus avoiding the dangers that can come from the idolatry of a surrogate end point such an asymptomatic 25% transient increase of serum creatinine. To avoid that, patients may lose the possibility of a more useful radiological diagnosis, because of an exaggerated suspicion of risk.”
“The treatment of spinal infection remains a challenge for spinal surgeons because of the variable presentations and complicated course. The diagnostic and OSI-744 inhibitor therapeutic value of percutaneous endoscopic lavage and drainage (PELD) has been proved in some recent studies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of PELD in patients with advanced infectious spondylitis which may traditionally require open surgery.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 21 patients who underwent PELD to treat their advanced lumbar infectious spondylitis. Patients with severe infection resulting in significant neurological deficit and mechanical instability were excluded from the PELD procedure, which was only used on selected patients with less severe disease.