[Amipaque myeloradiculography in the diagnosis of brachial plexus root rupture]

Myelography with a water-soluble contrast medium amipak (metrisamide) was applied in a complex with other diagnostic methods of examination in 22 patients with injury to the roots and primary trunks of the brachial plexus. Five of these patients had a clinical picture of Erb-Duchenne paralysis, in 17 injury to all the primary trunks with predominance of Djerine-Klumpke paralysis in the clinical picture was found. The results obtained provide evidence that myelography with amipak is a reliable method of the diagnosis of preganglionic (intraforaminal) injury to the roots of the brachial plexus. The most informative signs of such injury are. (a) traumatic meningocele; (b) deformity of the dura mater infundibula; (c) filling defects and constriction of the cerebrospinal fluid spaces. The presence of solitary meningocele is not a contraindication for operative exploration of the brachial plexus because of clinical picture of total paralysis may be caused by injury to the primary trunks in the more distal parts of the plexus.