The birth of myelography was presaged by Dandy's classic description of pneumoencephalography in 1919. After then, many contrast media, such as Pantopaque, Lipiodol, Abrodil, Dimer-X, and Conray-60, were developed and myelography was achieved in widespread popularity for diagnosis in low back pain, especially on the syndrome of herniated intervertebral disc. During the past few years, the picture has changed dramatically because of the availability of Metrizamide, a new, less toxic, non-ionic, aqueous medium. So, the authors have seen and studied 165 cases of. low back pain with respect to the diagnostic classification and clinical acceptance of Metrizamide myelographic examination from May, 1982 to April, 1985 at Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, College of Medicine, Soon Chun Hyang University. The results were summerized as followings; l. Among the 165 cases, myelographic finding was classified in 4 groups and 7 types, and showed as group 1(41), group 2 and type a(46), group 2 and type b(21), group 3 and type a(9), group 3 and type 1(15), group 3 and type c(16), and group 4(17). 2. The predominent type in the 57 operative cases was group 4(46, 27.9%). 3. In clinical analysis, tenderness was predominent in most types, but sensory changes in group 4. 4. Step by step in types, anatomical changes was seen more often than funtional changes in plain X-ray. 5. Myelographic accuracy was coincided with operative findings in 75.4% and 7 cases of false negative and 5 cases of false positive. 6. In disc findings, the extruded type was seen predominently in group 4 as 29.4%. 7. Above group 3 and type a, the prognosis of operative treatment was excellent than conservative.
Classification ; Clinical Study ; Contrast Media ; Diagnosis ; Ethiodized Oil ; Intervertebral Disc ; Iophendylate ; Low Back Pain ; Metrizamide ; Myelography ; Parturition ; Pneumoencephalography ; Prognosis

Foramen magnum tumors are uncommon. We experienced two cases of foramen magnum tumor. One case was meningioma, the other neurinoma. Metrizamide computerized tomography scanning and pantopaque myelography have been the radiographic test most commonly used to evaluate the foramen magnum. Moth cases underwent suboccipital craniectomy and total laminectomy in C1 & C2 with total removal of tumor mass. Postoperatively, both cases showed improvement without neurological sequelae. Both cases are discussed, and a review of literature is presented.
Foramen Magnum* ; Iophendylate ; Laminectomy ; Meningioma ; Metrizamide ; Moths ; Myelography ; Neurilemmoma

The intramedullary glioma of spinal cord has occupied 22.5% of intraspinal neoplasm, and is the most common among the intramedullary spinal cord tumor, and the first successful operative removal was performed in 1907 by Elsberg. The intramedullary astrocytoma has frequent incidence in the thoracic and cervical region of the spinal cord, which has more frequent grade I astrocytoma. We experienced a case of intramedullary grade II astrocytoma of the thoracolumbar region which has associated a paraplegia as neurological deficit. A 26 year old Korean female has admitted to our clinic because of paraplegia with incontinence for 2 years. On admission, the neurological examination revealed a paraparesis below T12 level with urinary and fecal incontinence and then local tenderness from T10 to L1 level. The simple X-ray film of the thracolumbar spine has showed erosion of both pedicle, widening of interpeduncular distance and scalloping change of posterior vertebral margin from T12 to L1, which were similar to the picture of intramedullary spinal cord tumor. We performed a myelography by pantopaque through the lumbar and cisternal puncture for accurate site of lesion, and found a complete block at L1 level and T10 level on myelogram. Then the immediate total laminectomy from T8 to L1 was applied. The operative finding was a intramedullary mass with cystic fluid, which has compressed the spinal cord. After aspiration of cystic fluid, we removed the tumor mass incompletely because of intermingling with spinal cord but the decompression was enough. The neurological defict was improved gradually for post-operative 4 weeks, thereafter improvement was stopped and remained the paraparesis. The post-operative pathological diagnosis was grade II astrocytoma, which composed of anaplastic cell and radiotherapy has followed.
Adult ; Astrocytoma* ; Decompression ; Diagnosis ; Fecal Incontinence ; Female ; Glioma ; Humans ; Incidence ; Iophendylate ; Laminectomy ; Myelography ; Neurologic Examination ; Paraparesis ; Paraplegia ; Pectinidae ; Punctures ; Radiotherapy ; Spinal Cord Neoplasms ; Spinal Cord* ; Spine ; X-Ray Film

The first myelography with air was carried out by Walter Dandy in 1919, and the myelography with positive contrast medium was done by Sicard and Forestier in 1922. Since Pantopaque was adopted as a contrast material by University of Rochester group in 1944, it has been rapidly popularized. Although higher diagnostic accuracy has been made with a development of the diagnostic aids such as electromyography, discography, epidural venography and computerized tomography, myelography has been popularized in our country with electromyography. The authars have seen and studied 107 cases of herniated lumbar disc with respect to the diagnostic accuracy of myelographic examination from January, 1976 to December, 1981 at the department of Orthopedic Surgery, Yonsei University College of Medicine. The results were as follows: l. Of the 107 cases, 59 were found in the age of 20 to 40 years and the ratio of male and female was 2:l. 2. Fifty eight cases (54.2%) had no history of back injury, but 40 cases (37.4%) had sprain of the back and 9 cases had direct trauma history. 3. In all cases, plain X-ray and myelogram were taken. Among them 55 cases showed narrowing of intervertebral space in plain film, and 100 cases showed positive myelographic findings such as lateral indentation of dural sac (41 cases), hour-glass defect (30 cases), root sleeve defect (12 cases), block defect (10 cases) and combined defects (7 cases). 4. Sixty one cases which confirmed by operation, the most frequent level of disc herniation was in L4-5 space. Clinical diagnosis was correct in 57.4%, and myelographic accuracy was coincided with operative finding in 80.3%. 5. Twelve (19.7%) of the 61 cases showed discrepancy between myelographic and operative findings, and these 12 cases consisted of 5 cases of level discrepancy, 3 cases of false positive and 4 cases of false negative.
Back Injuries ; Clinical Study ; Diagnosis ; Electromyography ; Female ; Humans ; Iophendylate ; Male ; Myelography ; Orthopedics ; Phlebography ; Sprains and Strains

Since Ewing has reported a primary malignant tumor as medullary origin in 1921, the Ewing's sarcomas have been reported more than 1,000 cases in the literatures. The Ewing's sarcoma has frequent incidence in the long tubular bone but very rare in the skull and spine for primary malignant tumor of the bone. The incidence of the Ewing's sarcoma in the spine is very rare than in the skull. We experienced a case of Ewing's sarcoma of the thoracic spine which has associated a paraplegia as neurological deficit. A 24 years old Korean female has admitted to our clinical because of paraplegia with incontinence for 2 days. On admission, the neurological examination revealed a paraparesis below T3 level with urinary and fecal incontinence, and then local tenderness on T2 level. No fever and leucocystosis were checked. Only the ESR has elevated up to 38 mm/hr. The simple X-ray film of the thoracic spine has showed a mottled destruction of the T2 vertebral body and abscence of the pedicle shadow, which were more similar to the picture of malignant tumor(primary or metastatic) than the bony change of ostemyelitis. We performed a myelography by pantopaque through the lumbar and cisternal puncture for accurate site of lesion. We found a complete block at T2 level by myelography. Then the immediate total laminectomy on T2-3 was applied. The operative finding was a extradural mass, which has compressed the spinal cord. We removed the tumor mass incompletely but the decompression was enough. The neurologic deficit has improved gradually for post-operative 2 weeks, but the improvement of neurologic deficit has stopped to T10 sensory recovery. We performed a radiation therapy as 4500 rads dose for 4 weeks, but not further improvement has been found. The post-operative pathological diagnosis was Ewing's sarcoma as a anaplastic small cell type.
Decompression ; Diagnosis ; Fecal Incontinence ; Female ; Fever ; Humans ; Incidence ; Iophendylate ; Laminectomy ; Myelography ; Neurologic Examination ; Neurologic Manifestations ; Osteomyelitis ; Paraparesis ; Paraplegia* ; Punctures ; Sarcoma, Ewing* ; Skull ; Spinal Cord ; Spine* ; X-Ray Film ; Young Adult

A rare case of intramedullary neurilemmoma of the spinal cord has been reported. A 23-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital, on 4th July, 1982, because of weakness of legs and difficulty of urination. Neurological examination revealed motor weakness of the both lower extremities with muscle atrophy. Sensory examination showed hypesthesia below the level of L3 dermatome of the right side and of L4 dermatome of the left. All deep tendon reflexes of the lower extremities were abolishes and Lasehue's sign was not appeared. Manometric Queckenstedt's test showed a complete block, with CSF protein of 460 mg/dl. Pantopaque myelogram demonstrated a complete block at the midportion of L1 spine. Total removal of the intramedullary tumor which was located in the dorsal column of the thoracolumbar segment was performed. The tumor was 4.0x1.5x1.0 cm in size and it proved to be an Antoni-A type neurilemmoma histologically. Only 20 similar cases have been published so far and summarized on Table 1, including our case. The relevant literature was reviewed.
Female ; Humans ; Hypesthesia ; Iophendylate ; Leg ; Lower Extremity ; Muscular Atrophy ; Neurilemmoma* ; Neurologic Examination ; Reflex, Stretch ; Spinal Cord ; Spine ; Urination ; Young Adult

Metrizamide lumbar myelography were performed in 150 patients with suspected herniated lumbar disc. The examination is easier to perform than with gas or iophendylate. The advantage of metrizamide over gas or iophendylate are the improved root sleeve visualization and examination of small structure such as root, root pocket and blood vessel. And then this is a higher percentage of diagnostic accuracy than can be obtained with other myelogram. Most of adverse reactions during and after myelography are mild and transitory, and no serious adverse reactions occured. It probably has a lower neurotoxicity than any other water soluble contrast agent.
Blood Vessels ; Humans ; Iophendylate ; Metrizamide* ; Myelography* ; Water

The various special diagnostic procedures have been used for the cervical cord injuries. The author describes a new technique of pantopaque cervical myelography based on the lateral C1-2 puncture.
Iophendylate* ; Myelography* ; Punctures*

With the establishment of the anterior cervical approach as the procedure of choice for cervical fracture-dislocation, attention has now turned to refinements of Cloward technique. The purpose of application of the Cloward technique is to achieve early stabilization of the fracture-dislocation, to shorten the recumbency period, and to promote rehabilitation. Recently the authors have experienced with the Cloward technique in the treatment of cervical fracture-dislocation. Our results indicated that anterior interbody fusion has been a satisfactory method for stabilizing one or more segment of the cervical fracture-dislocation. The prevention of dowel fracture or extrusion following fusion has been a important factor in the success. Another advantage obtained is to use the operating microscope for decompression of nerve roots. The chronic locked facets have not been reduced by the application of Cloward technique, but have been managed to achieve stabilization with Smith-Robinson technique. The lateral cervical pucture technique(C1-C2) for pantopaque myelography has been shown to be a valuable adjunct of acute injuries of the cervical spinal cord. A new technique for wiring and fusion of atlanto-axial dislocation has been performed with satisfactory results.
Decompression ; Dislocations* ; Iophendylate ; Myelography ; Rehabilitation ; Spinal Cord

Traction injuries of the brachial plexus have recognized since the classic descriptions of Duchenne, Erb and Klumpke. The original cases resulted from birth injuries, presumably from traction forces. In recent years, automobile accidents have resulted in and increase in traction or closed injuries to the brachial plexus. This paper reviews our experiences with 3 cases of injuries characteristically demonstrated by Pantopaque myelography.
Automobiles ; Birth Injuries ; Brachial Plexus ; Iophendylate ; Myelography ; Traction*