[The value of preoperative myelography as an important diagnostic measure before intervertebral disk surgery--a retrospective study].

Abstract

Lumbar disc diseases have become more and more significant among orthopaedic patients. In the submitted retrospective study the results of the clinical examination and of the lumbar myelography are compared with the intra-operative findings. The evaluation of the clinical records of 73 patients operated on for damaged intervertebral disc at the Orthopaedic Clinic of the County Hospital Aue between 1978 and 1988 results in the advice not to do without a lumbar myelography during the pre-operative diagnosis before an intended nucleotomy. This assertion is based on the fact that with nearly 90 per cent of the patients the myelographic findings were intra-operatively confirmed.