Clinical relation among dural adhesion, dural ossification, and dural laceration in the removal of ossification of the ligamentum flavum.

Background Context: Dural laceration frequently occurs during surgery in patients with ossification of the ligamentum flavum (OLF), mainly because of dural adhesion (DA) and dural ossification (DO) between the ligamentum flavum and the dura mater. However, the radiological predictive factors of DA in OLF have rarely been reported.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine the preoperative radiological signs for predicting intraoperative DA in OLF by using preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT).

Study Design: This is a retrospective study.

Patient Sample: This study included 182 patients who underwent decompressive laminectomy and OLF removal from 2005 to 2014.

Outcome Measure: Demographic data, preoperative neurologic status, surgical procedure and results, and intraoperative and postoperative complications were analyzed. Clinical outcome was assessed with the Japanese Orthopaedic Association score.

Materials And Methods: Depending on the morphologic appearance of OLF in preoperative radiographs, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of intraoperative DA and DO. We used the following factors of representative classifications: (1) surface appearance, (2) "double-layer" or "tram-track" sign, (3) cross-sectional area of the stenosed level, (4) Sato classification as axial classification, (5) Kuh classification as sagittal classification, and (6) high-signal-intensity change on T-weighted MRI.

Results: Intraoperative evidence of DA was observed in 52 patients (29%), and DO was observed in 23 patients (13%). Twenty-seven patients (15%) had dural laceration during surgery. Statistically, DA was closely associated with the non-uniform type of surface appearance (odds ratio 5.396, p=.001) and with the presence of either a double-layer sign or a tram-track sign (odds ratio 11.525, p<.001). In the preoperative CT and MRI, 21 out of 23 patients with DO showed a "double-layer sign" or a "tram-track sign."

Conclusions: This study identified two predictive factors of DA in OLF, which were the non-uniform surface appearance and the presence of a double-layer sign or a tram-track sign. The presence of DO in OLF was closely associated with a double-layer sign or a tram-track sign in the preoperative radiological images.