[With the aim to compare results to those found in the literature, authors present a retrospective overview of the spinal stabilisations carried out in the Neurosurgical Department at the St. John’s Hospital, Budapest, Hungary between 1989 and 2002. This 37 bed department provides neurosurgical services to the Buda region with its one million inhabitants. Out of 156 000 injuries in total in the past 13 years, the department has dealt with 9360 neurotraumatologic cases, 560 of them suffering from spinal injuries. In parallel, non-traumatic cases were also treated for tumour, infections, degenerative diseases and for the instability of the spine. The 224 stabilised cases were classified into three groups: cervical, thoracic, lumbar. The authors enumerate the type of operation in each level and they present the number of cases belonging to each type. Septic complications occured in 2.5% of cases. Screw breaking or slackening of the implanted devices was observed in 2% of the cases. The types of spinal operations applied provide satisfactory method for controlling the problems caused by the instability the spinal trauma, degenerative and tumourous cases. These results do not diverge from those found in the literature.]

[The authors present the management of a patient suffering from lumbar vertebral hemangioma. Percutaneous transpedicular acrylate vertebroplasty was performed. This method has widely been used for the treatment of pathological vertebral bodies of different aetiology. A brief rewiev of the literature of previous and current methods is presented. A detailed discussion is given why vertebroplasty was used in contrast to the radiological investigation where the patient's hemangioma proved to be a non-agressive type. According to the authors' knowledge this is the first Hungarian publication of acrylate vertebroplasty for the treatment of vertebral hemangioma.]

[As part of the rehabilitation of tetraplegical patients, movement improving operations have been carried out for more than 30 years. The scant results of the early 70's caused such a standstill and division among professionals, that operations on the upper limbs on tetraplegical patients became questionable. The authors started operating upper limb reconstructions on tetraplegia patients for achieving a basic hand function i.e. keypinch, grasping etc. in 2001. Three cases are quoted and one of them, operated ten months ago is described in details. The postoperative treatment of the other two patients has not finished yet. In 1998, a twenty-three years old girl had her fifth and sixth cervical vertebra broken in a car accident. The rugged break of the fifth vertebral body damaged the spinal chord. After the accident all four limbs became ataxic and a complete numbness occurred distally from the thoracic level of the chest. The patient went through a CV corpectomia, a corpus complementation, a CIV-V dissectomia and a CIV-VII ventrofixation. After the operation the movements of the upper limbs improved but those of the lower limbs did not. Her general condition stabilised after the treatments at the intensive care and the laryngological, the urological and the plastical surgery as well as the complex therapy at the rehabilitation department. She moved around in a wheelchair. After a para-coordinational treatment she was able to lift up small objects, but because of her paralysed bending and stretching finger muscles she was not able to hold heavier objects with her hands. In March 2002 a grip improving operation was carried on her dominant right hand. Twelve weeks after the operation she could lift up a weight of 2 kg and she was able to keypinch and grip with force.]

[The electrostimulation techniques may be used as a supplement or an alternative to standard therapy. Electrical therapy for chronic lower tract dysfunction comprises of noninvasive pudendal nerve neuromodulation and invasive sacral nerve stimulation. Short-term functional electrical stimulation seems favourable in selected patients with detrusor hyperreflexia. Sacral nerve stimulation may be a successful treatment option for patients with refractory detrusor overactivity and some forms of urinary retention.]

[The authors show the changes in the approach and methods concerning the acute surgical treatment of severe thoracolumbar spinal injuries. In the past 15 years, 878 acute surgical treatments have been done with ventral-, dorsal or combined method. The results are evaluated from the point of view of neurological function recovery, bony union, restoration of patients' comfort and complications. Authors discuss the changes of past 15 years regarding the basic ideas of the treatment of spinal injuries, the indications and methods of modern surgical techniques. The use of new surgical methods which are closely connected to the biomechanical characteristics of the injured spine are stressed, as well as the importance of the primary definitive ventral surgical treatment, in the case of a severe thoraco-lumbar spine injury.]