TY - JOUR T1 - The postoperative lumbar spine: evaluation of epidural scar over a 1-year period. JF - American Journal of Neuroradiology JO - Am. J. Neuroradiol. SP - 183 LP - 186 VL - 19 IS - 1 AU - J S Ross AU - N Obuchowski AU - R Zepp Y1 - 1998/01/01 UR - http://www.ajnr.org/content/19/1/183.abstract N2 - 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. ER -