Relationship between the benefits of paraspinal mapping and diffusion tensor imaging and the increase of decompression levels determined by conventional magnetic resonance imaging in degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis.

Background: In lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), at most times, several levels are impaired and selecting the correct level remains a common problem for surgeons, as surgery remains invasive, and extended laminectomy may lead to secondary surgical complications. Therefore, helping to select the correct level may be useful for surgeons. The use of diffuse tensor imaging (DTI) and paraspinal mapping (PM) in addition to conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be helpful (Chen et al.