Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of 36 patients one year after lumbar disc resection.

A prospective study of 36 patients with radicular leg pain and lumbar herniation who underwent single-level disc resection is presented. Clinical follow-up was combined with a gadolinium-DPTA MRI examination, 1 year after surgery. Disc herniation was still present in eight patients and four of these did not have any significant radicular pain. Another 15 patients had a small protrusion at the site of the former herniation. Twenty-three patients showed evidence of scar tissue. The nerve root was displaced in 12 patients and was thickened in 16 patients, respectively. Clinically, 19 patients recovered from leg pain, 14 patients improved, and 3 patients remained unchanged compared with preoperative symptoms. There was no consistent correlation between postoperative back pain or radicular leg pain and MR findings.