Dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is useful in assessing delayed neurologic deterioration after multilevel cervical laminectomy. The authors report a case of a 75-year-old woman who deteriorated 24 years after a C4-C7 laminectomy. When the extension MR demonstrated marked spinal cord compression attributable to a laminectomy membrane, the patient had an anterior diskectomy and fusion performed, after which she demonstrated significant neurologic improvement. In this and other cases, the dynamic MR may be a useful tool in discerning the etiology of the delayed neurologic changes occurring in postoperative patients.
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Morimoto et al. (1999) studied this question.