Lumbar discography. Its value in diagnosis and treatment of lumbar disc lesions.

Lumbar discography has been performed in over 1500 patients at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, and a report concerning 683 cases has been previously published. The authors review an additional 199 cases, finding that decision making was influenced by discography in 155 cases (78%).

Cauda equina arachnoiditis. A correlative clinical and roentgenologic study.

A series of 93 consecutive patients whose myelograms were reported as showing arachnoiditis were studied, and correlations between the radiographic appearance and the clinical and surgical findings were tabulated. All but 1 patient had had either lumbar disc surgery and/or Pantopaque myelography. The study led to a classification of such roentgenogram changes which revealed that the majority of patients studied did not have the usual adhesive arachnoiditis, but the picture they projected was more commonly due to spinal stenosis, extraarachnoid dye injection, extradural scar, etc.

Post-laminectomy and post-fusion stenosis of the lumbar spine.

On the basis of a 9-year experience with 231 patients with post-laminectomy and post-spinal fusion stenosis of the lumbar spinal canal, we emphasize the importance of recognizing and adequately decompressing such lesions. In the majority of such patients pain relief has been achieved, but some of the failures can be attributed to technical reasons. Most failures are due to associated lesions and to functional factors.