title: [Epiduralography for diagnosis of lumbar intervertebral disc protrusion: report of 304 cases].
abstract: The authors used epiduralography in 304 cases for the diagnosis of lumbar intervertebral disc protrusion. The radiopaque contrast media was injected into the epidural space and then X-rays were taken of the 304 cases, 273 cases received surgical intervention. Two hundred and seventy positive epidural X-ray, all were confirmed to have protruded or ruptured intervertebral disc at surgery. Three cases had negative epiduralgram preoperatively, no disc protrusion revealed at operation. Thus the accuracy of this technique in diagnosis of intervertebral disc protrusion was L 100%. The findings of positive epidural X-ray may be classified into 5 categories: (1) Lateral filling defect (21.2%), (2) Irregular filling defect near the center (0.7%), (3) Complete block of epidural space (35.6%), (4) Incomplete block of epidural space (27.4%), and (5) Unilateral block of epidural space (15.1%).
authors.affiliation: First Teaching Hospital, Beijing Medical University.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Ji
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007268:Injections, Epidural; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D007481:Iophendylate; D011859:Radiography
chemical_list: D007481:Iophendylate