• Yoichi Iizuka, Haku Iizuka, Tokue Mieda, Tsuyoshi Tajika, Atsushi Yamamoto, and Kenji Takagishi.
• Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, 3-39-22, Showa, Maebashi, Gunma, 371-8511, Japan. yoiizuka@gunma-u.ac.jp.
• Eur Spine J. 2016 Aug 1; 25 (8): 2514-9.

ObjectivesTo investigate the epidemiology of radiographic degenerative lumbar scoliosis (DLS) and symptomatic DLS and clarify the impact of radiographic spinopelvic parameters on the presence of symptoms and quality of life (QOL) in DLS subjects.MethodsWe obtained the age, gender, screening for chronic low back pain (CLBP) and lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), QOL assessments and X-rays of the thoracolumbar spine from 254 patients from the general population for this study. The prevalence of DLS and symptomatic DLS were estimated and factors associated with symptoms, and the QOL in the DLS subjects was analysed.ResultsThe prevalence of radiographic and symptomatic DLS was 19.2 and 7.8 %, respectively. A female gender (p = 0.018) and decreased sacral slope (p = 0.025) were associated with the presence of CLBP in the DLS subjects. A higher age was also associated with the presence of LSS in these subjects (p = 0.007), whereas the Cobb angle was found to be close the limit for significance (p = 0.063). The sacro-femoral-pubic angle and Cobb angle correlated with the EuroQol-5 dimensions utility score (r = 0.314, p = 0.014) and EuroQol-visual analogue scale score (r = -0.291, p = 0.043), respectively. Lumbar lordosis and body mass index correlated with the lumbar function (r = 0.285, p = 0.047) and visual analogue scale for leg pain (r = 0.328, p = 0.022) on the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Questionnaire, respectively.ConclusionsThe prevalence of radiographic DLS in this study was approximately 20 % and roughly 40 % of the DLS subjects had symptoms. Some spinopelvic parameters may impact the occurrence of symptoms and the QOL in DLS subjects.

26 keywords...

hide…