Clinical Outcomes Following Lumbar Spine Surgery Using The DIAM Non-fusion Interspinous Implant
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$72,343.00
Summary
This investigation will focus on a single minimally-invasive surgical intervention used in the treatment of disorders of the lumbar spine. The Device for Intervertebral Assisted Motion (DIAM) is a novel system for stabilizing the disc and joints of the low back which is promoted over fusion for improving stability while restoring normal vertebral alignment. This new device has limited research evaluation of efficacy and will be examined with the aim of providing clinical guidelines for its use.
Low back pain (LBP) is highly prevalent and enormously expensive to society: total payments made by Workcover for injuries to the low back were in excess of $530 million in NSW in 1996. Chronic LBP (pain lasting more than 3 months) accounts for up to 90% of these costs. Prevention of a large part of this costly problem could be achieved by effective treatment at the earlier sub-acute phase of LBP (6 weeks to 3 months duration). Exercise and advice are two widely-used treatments for sub-acute LBP ....Low back pain (LBP) is highly prevalent and enormously expensive to society: total payments made by Workcover for injuries to the low back were in excess of $530 million in NSW in 1996. Chronic LBP (pain lasting more than 3 months) accounts for up to 90% of these costs. Prevention of a large part of this costly problem could be achieved by effective treatment at the earlier sub-acute phase of LBP (6 weeks to 3 months duration). Exercise and advice are two widely-used treatments for sub-acute LBP, yet remarkably, their efficacy is unknown. For the first time, this study will rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of both a supervised exercise program and advice to return to normal activity for sub-acute LBP. When this study is completed, Australian practitioners will be able to adopt evidence based practice when managing sub-acute LBP. In addition, the study's results will enable practitioners to select the most effective treatment for each individual patient. The results of this study should lead to a large reduction in the incidence of chronic LBP, therefore the results should lead to significant savings in terms of social and economic costs.Read moreRead less
Multidisciplinary Management Of Vertebral Metastases Identification Of Standardized Surgical Guidelines
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$358,604.00
Summary
The spine is the commonest site of cancer spread to the skeleton and often leads to severe pain and paralysis. Recent advances in surgical techniques enable removal and reconstruction of all tumours of the spine. However, surgery remains controversial because of the need to weigh up the patient’s estimated length of survival with the risks of surgery. Our aims are to develop clear guidelines on which patients to perform surgery on, and what type of surgery to perform.