Incidence of Radiculopathy in Lumbosacral Spine in Hadoti Region, Rajasthan, India - A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

Background Context: Lumbosacral radiculopathy is a syndrome occurring due to the involvement of nerve roots in the lumbosacral region, leading to symptoms such as lower limb tingling, weakness, pain as well as low back ache. Purpose: To estimate the burden of Radiculopathy in patients with low back ache in Hadoti Region of Rajasthan, India. Study Design: Retrospective Observational Cross-Sectional Study Patient Sample Size: 1,12,279 Outcome Measures: Radiological and clinical evidence of radiculopathy Methods: All patients presenting to the OPD were screened and patients with complaints of low back aches were eligible for the study. All patients with low back aches were evaluated clinically and radiologically using digital X-rays and MRI scans done on the same machine and with the same setup. All our results were tabulated and statistical analysis was done using the paired T-test and ANOVA for different statistical analysis Results: Out of the 82,281 participants, 9,641 (11.72%) patients had complains of low back ache, 1,607 (16.67%) patients had clinically and radiologically conrmed radiculopathy, 118 (7.34%) patients had involvement of the L1 nerve root, 108 (6.72%) patients had involvement of the L2 nerve root, 238 (14.81%) patients had involvement of the L3 nerve root, 276 (17.17%) patients had involvement of the L4 nerve root, 394 (24.52%) patients had involvement of the L5 nerve root, 318 (19.79%) patients had involvement of the S1 nerve root, 98 (6.1%) patients had involvement of the S2 nerve root, 10 (0.62%) patients had involvement of the S3 nerve root and 7 (0.44%) patients had involvement of the S4 nerve root, 1,239 (77.1%) patients were females, whereas 368 (22.9%) patients were males, 69 (4.29%) patients were in the age group of <20 years, 77 (4.79%) patients were in the age group of 20-30 years, 153 (9.52%) patients were in the age group of 30-40 years, 459 (28.57%) patients were in the age group of 40-50 years, 383 (23.81%) patients were in the age group of 50-60 years, 306 (19.05%) patients were in the age group of 60-70 years and 160 (9.96%) patients were in the age group of >70 years, 1025 (63.78%) patients had radiculopathy in the right limb, whereas 582 (36.22%) patients had radiculopathy in the left limb. Conclusions: Our study interprets that in the Hadoti region of Rajasthan, India, approximately, one out of every six patients with low back ache have radiculopathy, out of which every three out of four patients are females. Almost one out of every four patients have radiculopathy in the L5 nerve root and almost one in four patients are between 40-50 years old. Almost 6 out of 10 patients have radiculopathy in the right limb.