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Biomedical subjects

E H Simmons

Publications and source records attributed to E H Simmons.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Incidence and severity of back pain in adult idiopathic scoliosis.

Incidence of back pain in a referred and followed group of 197 adults with idiopathic scoliosis and in a comparable control group of 180 adults without known spinal deformity was the same. Severity of pain, however, was greater in scoliotic patients. The clinical course of back pain in adults without spinal deformity and in scoliotics was different: 64% improvement in adults without scoliosis versus 83% persistence and progression in adults with scoliosis. Fifty-one percent of adult scoliotics (101 patients) had significant pain. Pain increased with age and degree of scoliotic curvature (P less than 0.0005). Patients with major lumbar curves had more pain. Major complaint was frequently below major deformity. Compensatory lumbosacral fractional curves were most painful and disabling. Pain comes mainly from concavity of curves and includes discogenic, facet joint, and radicular origins. Surgery significantly reduced pain (P less than 0.0001); conservative therapy did not. Eighty-three percent of surgical patients had sufficient pain relief to make surgery worthwhile at five years average follow-up.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Clinical and experimental evidence for the use of hypothermia in decompression sickness.

During construction of the Coxwell sewer tunnel and subway in Toronto, a number of patients with decompression sickness failed to respond completely to repressurization alone. After the addition of hypothermia, significant improvement occurred. These observations stimulated an experimental study in which 36 rabbits were exposed to 60 or 70 p.s.i. for 1 h. After sudden decompression over 70 s, they were either observed, cooled in air at 0 degrees C, or cooled in water at 3 degrees C. Immersion in water significantly reduced the mortality rate, while cooling in air did not. These experimental results supported the clinical observations that hypothermia was an effective therapeutic adjunct in the treatment of decompression sickness.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Onchocerciasis of the flexor compartment of the forearm: a case report.

A 36-year-old white male schoolteacher presented with a painless, semifluctuant mass on the volar aspect of his forearm and symptoms of ring finger tenosynovitis and median nerve compression. At operation there was a widespread infestation of the flexor tendon compartment, the carpal tunnel, and the tendon sheaths of the ringer finger with Onchocerca volvulus, a filarial nematode, not previously reported in the these tissues.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

The effect of spinal distraction on regional spinal cord blood flow in cats.

Distraction is considered to be a factor in many spinal cord injuries. With a specially designed distraction apparatus and the 14C-antipyrine autoradiographic technique, the effect of distraction on spinal cord blood flow (SCBF) in cats was studied. Distraction was performed at L2-3 at a rate of 0.25 cm/10 min, and the spinal evoked response (SER) was monitored by stimulating the sciatic nerve and recording at T-13. The SCBF was assessed in five control animals, four animals in whom the SER was markedly altered by distraction, and five animals after the SER had been abolished and an additional 0.5 cm distraction applied. Control cats had gray- and white-matter flows of 44.5 +/- 1.4 (SEM) and 10.5 +/- 0.4 ml/100 gm/min, respectively. Distraction to the point of marked SER alteration caused a 50% loss of SCBF at and caudal to the distraction site. An additional 0.5 cm distraction produced total abolition of SCBF at the distraction site and for a considerable distance rostral and caudal to it. Thus, it is shown that spinal distraction causes cord ischemia similar to that seen with other types of spinal cord injury. In addition, distraction severe enough to cause loss of the SER has already produced severe cord ischemia.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Ganglion migrans of the proximal tibiofibular joint causing lesions in the subcutaneous tissue, muscle, bone, or peroneal nerve: report of three cases and review of the literature.

Three cases illustrate the variety of ways a ganglion may arise from the tibiofibular joint. In one case, the diagnosis was initially obscure because the swelling occurred under the muscles of the lateral compartment of the lower leg; the lesion was also intraosseous and extended into a tendon. In the second case, the ganglion had invaded the peroneal nerve, and in the third, the ganglion was a palpable subcutaneous tumor.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Pneumothorax complicating a fracture of the clavicle.

Fractures of the clavicle, while common, are associated with few serious complications. The authors report the case of a 29-year-old man with a simple fracture of the middle third of the clavicle that was associated with a 30% pneumothorax. The force and mechanism of the injury, severe pleuritic pain and reduced breath sounds suggested the diagnosis which was confirmed roentgenographically. The possibility of pneumothorax must be considered in any patient with a fracture of the clavicle, especially in the unconscious patient who has sustained multiple injuries.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Kyphotic deformity of the spine in ankylosing spondylitis.

Patients who present with apparent kyphotic deformity of the spine associated with ankylosing spondylitis may have their main deformity in the hip joints, in the lumbar spine, the thoracic spine, or it may be primarily cervical in situation. If any major correction is to be carried out, then the correction should be done in the area of the main deformity. Deformity in each of these areas is amenable to surgical correction, but this requires a very careful assessment, meticulous preoperative planning, and very precise attention to operative technique to allow reasonably consistent success without major risk to the patient.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

An evaluation of discography in the localization of symptomatic levels in discogenic disease of the spine.

On the basis of a review of 507 patients, discography was a reliable diagnostic procedure in determining the symptomatic level in discogenic disease of the cervical and lumbar spine. The value of discography of the spine is as both a functional and anatomical assessment. Its value in the cervical spine is largely as a functional assessment, with reproduction of the patient's specific pain pattern on a consistent basis at a particular level. It is a reasonably simple procedure, provided that adequate radiographic facilities are available, and strict adherence to aseptic technique is carriet out. The performance and interpretation requires a considerable amount of skill and experience. However, it is a useful adjunct to solving the perplexing problem of the surgical management of pain in discogenic disease of the spine.

Adolescent↗