Magnetic imaging in the assessment of the lumbar disk

NMR is becoming an established diagnostic modality in many of the medical specialties. Seventy-four patients who underwent lumbar spine scans in this series were positive for herniated disk. Of that group, 35 underwent either traditional laminectomy with disk excision (19) or chemonucleolysis (16). All of the positive studies were confirmed at the time of the therapeutic procedure. Among the negative studies (78), three patients persisted in their complaints of pain and underwent subsequent myelogram enhanced CAT scans of the lumbar spine. All of these were negative. There are no known ill-effects of magnetic resonance imaging.