• Acta orthopaedica · Apr 2011

    Correlation between disability and MRI findings in lumbar spinal stenosis: a prospective study of 109 patients operated on by decompression.

    • Freyr G Sigmundsson, Xiao P Kang, Bo Jönsson, and Björn Strömqvist.
    • Department of Orthopedics, Clincal Sciences Lund, Lund University, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. freyr.gauti.sigmundsson@ltblekinge.se
    • Acta Orthop. 2011 Apr 1;82(2):204-10.

    Background And PurposeMRI is the modality of choice when diagnosing spinal stenosis but it also shows that stenosis is prevalent in asymptomatic subjects over 60. The relationship between preoperative health-related quality of life, functional status, leg and back pain, and the objectively measured dural sac area in single and multilevel stenosis is unknown. We assessed this relationship in a prospective study.Patients And MethodsThe cohort included 109 consecutive patients with central spinal stenosis operated on with decompressive laminectomy or laminotomy. Preoperatively, all patients completed the questionnaires for EQ-5D, SF-36, Oswestry disability index (ODI), estimated walking distance and leg and back pain (VAS). The cross-sectional area of the dural sac was measured at relevant disc levels in mm², and spondylolisthesis was measured in mm. For comparison, the area of the most narrow level, the number of levels with dural sac area < 70 mm², and spondylolisthesis were studied.ResultsBefore surgery, patients with central spinal stenosis had low HRLQoL and functional status, and high pain levels. Patients with multilevel stenosis had better general health (p = 0.04) and less leg and back pain despite having smaller dural sac area than patients with single-level stenosis. There was a poor correlation between walking distance, ODI, the SF-36, EQ-5D, and leg and back pain levels on the one hand and dural sac area on the other. Women more often had multilevel spinal stenosis (p = 0.05) and spondylolisthesis (p < 0.001). Spondylolisthetic patients more often had small dural sac area (p = 0.04) and multilevel stenosis (p = 0.06).InterpretationOur findings indicate that HRQoL, function, and pain measured preoperatively correlate with morphological changes on MRI to a limited extent.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…