Electromyography [EMG] as an aid in the diagnosis of lumbar disc lesions

ABSTRACT

72 consecutive patients presenting with sensory motor disturbances consistent with a clinical diagnosis of L4-5 and L5-S1 radioculopathy were studied. All had conventional clinical-neurological examinations, lumbosacral myelogrphy, EMG studies and surgical procedures. The results of surgical explorations of the lumbosacral discs were correlated with the preoperative clinical, myelographic and EMG findings. The overall accuracy of clinical diagnosis was 66.66%, that for myelography was 86.1% and that for EMG was 98,61% whereas, the correct anatomical localization of clinical diagnosis was 36.1%, that for myelography was 83.5% and that for EMG was 88.88%. It is concluded that the diagnostic use of EMG studies were more accurate in predicting the presence of lumbosacral radiculopathy than the clinical and myelographic studies. However, the findings of these investigations are not comparable but complementary. Therefore, there is a greatly reduced chance of error when the three methods are used in combination for assessing diagnosis of this difficult problem: