Özet:

DOI: 10.26650/IUITFD.346369 Objective: Low back pain can reduce people’s quality of life, cause losses in the workforce, and create serious healthcare expenses. Spinal degenerations, especially lumbar spine pathologies, constitute a significant portion of neurosurgery. The aim of this retrospective study was to examine the change in spinal degeneration observed in repeated MRIs of patients who presented to the Neurosurgery Department with complaints of chronic or recurrent low back pain. Materials and Methods: Among the patients who presented to the Neurosurgery Department with a complaint of low back pain between April and June 2017, 205 patients who had undergone a minimum of two lumbar MRIs were included in this study. These patients had disk herniation, transitional vertebra, L-Cobb angle, multifidus muscle atrophy, disk degeneration, narrow lumbar spinal canal, or spondylolisthesis, and the first and last MRI findings of the patients were compared to determine whether there was increased pathology. Results: The average duration between the MRIs of patients who had undergone a minimum of two and a maximum of six lumbar MRIs was 23 (2-48) months. The first and last MRI findings were compatible for all researched pathologies (K=0.911±0.039; p<0.001). No statistically significant difference was found between the first and last MRI findings (p=0.063). Conclusion: MRIs can be repeated if the degeneration in chronic or recurrent low back pain increases over months. However, in this study, no statistically significant difference was found regarding degenerative findings in repeated MRIs. As a result, although all patients should be assessed depending on their case, MRI performed in the early phase does not have a positive contribution to the treatment in terms of radiological data, especially for patients diagnosed with spinal degeneration, unless there are findings of radicular irritation and sensory-motor deficits.

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