Tuesday, 13th May 51st International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine Annual Meeting 2025

Three oral presentations will be followed by a 15-minute panel discussion.

• Laminin 511 promotes desired phenotypes in cultured human nucleus pulposus cells through MYC/p38 signaling - Hazuki H.S Soma
• Mechanosensitive TRPV4 controls intervertebral disc development in human and mice - Jiachen Lin
• Innervation-on-a-Chip to Investigate Neuron-Disc Interactions in Discogenic Back Pain - Xudong xl Li
• New minimally-invasive injectable biomaterials for the regeneration of the nucleus pulposus - Gabriela Graziani
• Effects of GDF6 on active protein synthesis by cells of degenerated intervertebral disc - Stone Sima
• Immunophenotyping of Modic type 1 change bone marrow reveals accumulation and activation of immune cells bridging innate and adaptive immune response - Stefan Dudli

Three oral presentations will be followed by a 15-minute panel discussion.

• Effects of isolated lumbar extension resistance exercise on chronic low back pain and radiculopathy related to specific spinal disorders: a multidimensional, closely-monitored, prospective two-arm study - Bruno Domokos
• Quantifying Functional Differences Between Unilateral Radiculopathy and Neurogenic Claudication Patients Utilizing 3D Gait Analysis - Haseeb Goheer
• Refining mechanical pain phenotypes using a data-driven approach - Conor W ONeill
• Antibiotic-loaded hyaluronic acid-tyramine hydrogel with annulus fibrosus repair for post-surgical treatment of infected herniated discs - Danilo Menghini

Three oral presentations will be followed by a 15-minute panel discussion.

• Income predicts low back pain but not lumbar disc height: data from the UK Biobank image dataset - John T Martin
• A new scale to identify symptomatic lumbar foraminal stenosis on magnetic resonance images - Shuchen Ding
• Are Modic changes associated with autoimmune diseases and other diseases related to the immune system? - Juhani Määttä
• Association between MRI findings and inflammatory symptoms in non-specific chronic low back pain - Conor ONeill
• Magnetic resonance imaging of the spine of healthy Swedish 14-year-old adolescents, and relation to physical activity, screen time and pain - Sara Brisby Enger
• Uncertainty Quantification in Lumbar Stenosis Classification on MRI: A Comparative Analysis of Conformal Prediction Methods - Andrea Cina

Speakers:
B T Pushpa - Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore, India
Jeffrey Lotz - University of California San Francisco, USA
Aaron Fields - University of California San Francisco, USA
S Rajasekaran - Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore, India

There has been considerable research and efforts in reversing disc degeneration with various types of regenerative therapies, which have unfortunately not met with uniform success.  None of them have been able to provide results enough to allow clinical applications. The main reasons for this poor success may be the hypoxic and poor nutrient environment of the disc, the low cell density, and the poor regenerative capacity for the nucleus pulposus cells. But an overriding reason may also be the fact that normal MRI is incapable of identifying early disc degeneration and by the time changes are obvious, degeneration could have crossed a ‘point of no return’.

Modern MRI sequences like Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, T2 relaxometry, T1rho and FLASH help to identify molecular level changes and alterations of proteoglycans and matrix much before any changes are obvious in routine MRI.  Recently, there has been considerable advances in these imaging techniques and this symposium will discuss the topic in detail. The speakers for the symposium are all veterans in this field with their research well published and accepted.

Three oral presentations will be followed by a 15-minute panel discussion.

• Lumbar Facet Arthroplasty for Spondylolisthesis and Stenosis: Two Year Outcomes from a Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial - Shelby Burks
• Physical activity intervention to improve surgical spine outcomes (PASS Trial) - Kristin R Archer
• Paraspinal muscle fat content by MRI outperforms subcutaneous and visceral fat volumes in predicting history of back pain in the German National Cohort (GNC) - Matan Atad
• Autologous mesenchymal stromal cells for the treatment of patients affected by chronic low back pain due to multilevel intervertebral disc degeneration: a phase IIB randomized controlled trial (ACTIVE study) - Gianluca Vadalà
• PDGF-BB protects human intervertebral disc cells from senescence progression  - Changli Zhang
• Associations between physical activities and subsequent short- vs. long-term outcomes in low back pain: a longitudinal case-crossover study nested within a cohort study - Pradeep Suri

Three oral presentations will be followed by a 15-minute panel discussion.

• The “forgotten spine” as the ultimate goal in fusion surgery: towards the development of a patient-centered outcome measure - Luca Ambrosio
• Development of a Comprehensive Treatment Algorithm for Tandem Spinal Stenosis - Decision Making and Surgical Strategy - Rishi Kanna
• Serum inflammatory profiles associate with intradiscal propionic acid levels in chronic low back pain patients with Modic changes - Jiamin Zhou
• Patients with Lumbar Degenerative Spinal Conditions are at a Greater Risk of Falling: An Analysis of the Effect of Vision, Support Surfaces, and Adaptations on the Cone of Economy - Ram Haddas
• "Koshimagari Exercise” for Adult Spinal Deformity: A Prospective Multicenter Analysis of Optimal Patient Identification for Home-Based Exercise Using a Novel Classification - Hiroshi Taniwaki
• Extracellular vesicles derived from primed MSCs modulate intervertebral disc metabolism in C6-deficient mouse spine cultures - Graciosa Quelhas Teixeira

Three oral presentations will be followed by a 15-minute panel discussion.

• Relationship of discographic injection results to subsequent surgery in the lumbar spine with minimum 10 year follow-up - Donna D Ohnmeiss
• The Effect of Lumbar Decompression on Patients’ Disability Measured by Spine Specific Wearables - Ram Haddas
• Machine learning-driven clinical and imaging clustering of degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis:  Implications for stratified surgical care - Y. Raja Rampersaud
• Dynamic slip comparing supine and standing positions is associated with reoperation and postoperative residual symptoms after single-level lumbar spinal decompression surgery: A multicenter study. - Shuhei Ohyama
• Does osteopenia increase the incidence of instrumentation-related complications after posterior/transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion? - Kohei Shiota
• Long-Term Outcomes of Cauda Equina Syndrome Related to Degenerative Lumbar Spine Stenosis: A Retrospective Study of 19 Cases - Ghassen Gader

Speakers:
Dino Samartzis- Rush University, USA
Jiri Dvorak - Schulthess Clinic Zurich, Switzerland
Svenja Illien-Junger - Emory University, USA
Arnold Wong - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Paul Hodges - The University of Queensland, Australia
Kinshi Kato - Fukushima Medical University, Japan
Koichi Sairyo - Tokushima University Tokushima, Japan

What to Expect:

• Insights into the impact of sports on spine health/disorder
• Cutting-edge research on injury prevention and rehabilitation
• Discussion of both conservative and surgical management options
• Optimizing athletic performance while safeguarding spinal health
• Collaboration between top clinicians, researchers, and sports medicine experts

Don’t miss this exclusive collaboration between ISSLS and the ORS Spine Section! Join us as we delve into “game-changing” advancements in spinal care for athletes - and raise awareness of the symbiosis between a Healthy Body, Healthy Mind and a Healthy Spine.