J Korean Radiol Soc.  1981 Jun;17(1):62-68. 10.3348/jkrs.1981.17.1.62.

Lumbar epidural venography

• Ha SW

• KMID: 2463420
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3348/jkrs.1981.17.1.62

Abstract

Myelography is widely used fo radiological diagnosis of herniated lumbar disc. But the diagnositc accuracy isonly about 84% with range of 67 to 100% with many cases of false negative and equivocal cases. In cases of extremelateral disc herniation and short cul de sac or wide epidural space, even quite a large disc herniation cannot bedetected to myelography. But with epidural venography these defects of myelography can easily be over come. 52cases of epidural venography were performed in department of Radiology of Capital Armed Forces General Hospitalduring the 20 months from May 1979 to Dec. 1980. And the findings were compared with those of myelography andoperative results. The results are as follows; 1. Of 52 cases, satisfactory opacification was obtained in 48 cases(92.3%). 2. Single vein injection was adequate for satisfactory opacification in 40 cases (76.9%). 3. There were 2cases of retroperitoneal extravasation of contrast media, but the patient recovered without difficulty. 4. Of 24cases operated, the venographic finding was confirmed in 21 casesa (87.5%) and of the 48 cases adequatelyopacified, there were only 3 cases of confirmed diagnostic error and so the error rate is only 6.25%. 5. Abnormalfindings of myelography were exactly reproduced on epidural venography and many cases with equivocal or normalmyelographic findings were accurately diagnosed with epidural venography. 6. In cases of total block, epiduralvenography was very useful for evalutaion of the caudal portion. So lumbar epidural venography is very useful notonly as an adjunctive method to myelography, but also as the first diagnostic procedure for herniated disc, forthe procedure is simple and the diagnostic accuracy is very high.

MeSH Terms

Arm
Diagnosis
Diagnostic Errors
Epidural Space
Extravasation of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Materials
Humans
Intervertebral Disc Displacement
Methods
Myelography
Phlebography*
Veins