The Michel Benoist and Robert Mulholland yearly European Spine Journal Review: a survey of the “surgical and research” articles in the European Spine Journal, 2009

Abstract

This has been an exciting year in the Journal with some important innovations. Reporting single interesting cases has always been popular with readers though not with editors, often considered to have too little science, and too much anecdote. The series of Grand Rounds published this year [13, 21, 41] meet these criticisms, and whilst improving the readers diagnostic and management skills, have an attractive immediacy about them, and are well worth reading. The Editorial by Aebi [1] emphasises the educational and teaching value of what in the UK we often refer to as “bedside teaching” of which Grand Rounds is an example, hallowed by many years of use in medical training. The other two innovations, the creation of a Chinese Section Editorial Board [2] and the translation and publication of papers in the Italian literature during the year, both expand in a valuable way the range of intellectual content in the Journal. The Supplements have been of great interest and will be referred to below, but Supplement 2 is unique as it is available electronically only, and contains single case reports. It makes very interesting internet browsing, instructing us in some difficult diagnostic and management problems.