Does Mri Morphology Correlate With Pre-operative Neurological Status in Operatively Treated LCS? A Retrospective Study

Abstract Introduction: It is well established that in Lumbar Canal Stenosis (LCS) radiological measures do not correlate with clinical severity of the syndrome. There is paucity of literature whether sensory-motor deficits, bladder/bowel dysfunction correlate with radiological grades of spinal stenosis. The aim of the study is to determine whether objective neurological deficits in LCS correlate with 4 of the commonly used radiological grading systems. Material and Methods: It was a Retrospective observation study, comprising of 100 consecutive cases of operated lumbar canal stenosis in a university teaching hospital. Clinical grading and neurological assessment was done by the Zurich Claudication Score and the MRC grading respectively. Four radiological scores based on axial MR images were studied for each patient- Schizas’s, Lee’s, Miskin’s and Menon’s. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS Version 25. Results: All 100 patients were scored as moderate or severe grade of LCS based on the Zurich claudication score. The Schizas score had a P value of 0.029 for motor deficit and 0.034 for sensory deficit; the Lee system had a P value of 0.258(motor deficit) and 0.615(sensory deficit); the Miskin & Mendel schema had values of 0.012 and 0.113 and the Menon’s score had 0.1368 and 0.668 suggesting that, only Schizas (Motor and sensory) & M&M (only motor) were statistically significant. Conclusion: Schizas classification correlates statistically with neurological deficit (motor and sensory), whereas M&M classification statistically correlates with only motor deficit. Menon et al and Lees classifications fails to show any statistical correlation with neurological deficit.