Abstract: Background: Today various spinal diseases are diagnosed by means of clinicoradiological methods such as X-ray, MR Imaging and CT scan. Need of such investigations is essential to have idea about the pathology one is going to treat intraoperatively. Many times clinical & radiological diagnosis is not consistent with operative findings. Therefore, surgeon is at a loss to choose proper operative procedure planned preoperatively. An attempt has been done to correlate clinicoradiological findings with operative findings of 40 cases selected prospectively at this Orthopaedic and trauma hospital.
Materials and methods: This is a prospective study of 40 cases of various spinal disorders performed at Orthopaedic and Trauma Hospital, Miraj, Maharashtra during the period from February 2009 to January 2011. In the present study of 40 patients, there were 31 males and 9 females above the age of 20 years. Most of the patients were initially seen on outpatient basis. Detailed history was taken and thorough local as well as neurological examination was carried out.
Results and discussion: The commonest age group affected was 41-50. 75% of cases were above 40 years of age. Males are affected more than females. 77.5% of patients were males. In present study, PID was most common spinal disorder. Manual workers and farmers are more affected. Most affected level is L4/L5 disc. Sagittal diameter was measured at MRI sections and its relation with difficulty during operation was noted. It was seen with narrower the diameter more the difficulty during operation.
Conclusion: MRI may underestimate nerve root tension, hence special efforts needed intraoperatively to estimate nerve root tension. If found appropriate procedure should be followed. MRI is oversensitive to disc pathology. Good clinical correlation is required to deal with pathological disc lesions at the time of surgery.
