COMPARISON OF DERMATOMAL SEPS AND OPERATIVE FINDINGS IN LUMBAR DISC DISEASE

This report deals with an estimation of the diagnostic value of dermat omal somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs), by correlating the neurop hysiological data to clinical, neuroradiological and operative finding s in lumbar disc protrusion. Our material consists of 12, surgically t reated patients with lumbar disc protrusion in which diagnostic work u p included history, neurological examination, routine lumbar spine fil ms, computerised tomography and MRI of the lumbar spine, in addition t o neurophysiological investigation, especially conduction velocity stu dies, and SEPs recorded by the standard methods, as well as after derm atomal stimulation. The retrospective analysis disclosed a correlation for the SEPs after dermatomal stimulation and surgical findings, in 8 3% of our cases.