ArticleNeurospine2019
Retrospective Outcome Evaluation of Cervical Nucleoplasty Using Digital Infrared Thermographic Imaging.
Article in Neurospine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Research Progress on Low-Temperature Plasma Nucleoplasty and Targeted Radiofrequency for Cervical Spondylotic Radiculopathy: A Retrospective Review.Pain and therapy · 2026Review
- A New Role for Epidurography: A Simple Method for Assessing the Adequacy of Decompression during Percutaneous Plasma Disc Decompression.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Letter to the Editor: Commentary on Comparison of the Clinical Effectiveness Between Infrared Thermography and Electrophysiology Tests in Spinal Intradural Extramedullary Schwannoma (Korean journal of neurotrauma · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePercutaneous cervical nucleoplasty (PCN) is used to treat cervical disc herniation. Radiological imaging studies, including plain radiography, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have been used to make early predictions of cervical spinal surgery outcomes. However, simple radiological studies do not provide sufficiently detailed information; moreover, CT and MRI are highly expensive. Herein, we aimed to elucidate the usefulness of digital infrared thermography imaging (DITI) as an outcome marker after cervical nucleoplasty by correlating the changes in thermal difference (ΔTD) with the changes in pain intensity after PCN expressed as visual analogue scale (ΔVAS) scores.
methodsFor this study, 255 patients treated with PCN at Thomas Hospital between March 2012 and August 2014 were included. For each patient, demographic and clinical data, including preoperative MRI results, ΔVAS, ΔTD at the disc level treated with PCN, subjective symptom improvement, procedure-related discomfort, overall satisfaction, and adverse effects, were collected and evaluated for up to 3 months retrospectively.
resultsThermal difference (TD) and VAS scores improved after PCN (p<0.05), but ΔTD showed no significant correlation with ΔVAS. If the preoperative TD was larger, the postoperative VAS was worse and there was less pain relief (ΔVAS) after PCN (p<0.05). Only few adverse effects were noticeable after PCN.
conclusionIn DITI, which was used to evaluate the outcomes after cervical nucleoplasty, the ΔTD did not seem to reflect the ΔVAS after PCN. However, preoperative DITI findings could be useful for predicting VAS reduction and clinical improvements after PCN.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.