PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ross, J S
AU  - Obuchowski, N
AU  - Zepp, R
TI  - The postoperative lumbar spine: evaluation of epidural scar over a 1-year period.
DP  - 1998 Jan 01
TA  - American Journal of Neuroradiology
PG  - 183--186
VI  - 19
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/19/1/183.short
4100  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/19/1/183.full
SO  - Am. J. Neuroradiol.1998 Jan 01; 19
AB  - PURPOSE We documented the morphological changes on enhanced MR imaging studies that occur in epidural scar over a period of 1 year after lumbar diskectomy.METHODS The study population was culled from a randomized, multicenter clinical trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of a device inhibiting postoperative epidural fibrosis after single-level, unilateral laminectomy/diskectomy for herniated lumbar disk. Analysis was restricted to 71 control subjects who did not receive the device. All patients underwent surgery after receiving clinical and MR examinations, with follow-up MR studies at 6 and 12 months. Evaluation of all MR images was performed by one interpreter, who was blinded to treatment arm and clinical findings. The extent of epidural scar seen at the 6- and 12-month MR examinations was graded on a scale of 0 to 4 for each quadrant at each imaging section encompassing the surgical level.RESULTS Eighty-five percent of the patients had no change in the amount of anterior epidural scar between the 6- and 12-month MR examinations; 75% of the patients showed no change in the amount of posterior epidural scar between the 6- and 12-month examinations.CONCLUSION The majority of our patients had no change in the amount of epidural scarring visible at enhanced MR imaging over a 1-year period after lumbar laminectomy/diskectomy.