The Study Of The Correlation Between Facet Effusion In Supine Lumbar MRI And The Stability Of Lumbar Degenerative Spondylolisthesis

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the association betweenlumbar facet fluid on supine MRI and instability on decubitus lateralflexion-exetension(DLFE) in patients with degenerative disease at L4-5.Methods: Supine MRI and DLFE films of67patients’ were seen in China-JapanUnion Hospital Of Jilin University for the treatment of degenerative lumbar disease atL4-5between February2013and February2015, The patients who have degenerativeL4-5spondylolisthesis and the lumbar facet fluid more than1mm on MRI wereselected as the case group, the patients who have the degenerative L4-5spondylolisthesis and without lumbar facet fluid or the lumbar facet fluid less than1mm on MRI were selected as the control group. The facet fluid on axial T2MRimages, dynamic instability on DLFE films through the L4-5facets were analyzed.The presence of facet effusions, sagittal plane translation were recorded. The DLFE istaken instead of the standing functional position. The age, sagittal plane translation,the grade of lumbar disc degenerative, the grade of cartilage degeneration, the gradeof facet osteophyte and the grade of subchondral sclerosis of L4-5between case groupand control group were compared,correlation between the lumbar facet fluid size andthe sagittal plane translation in case group.Results:67patients were included in the study, there were35patients withoutlumbar dynamic instability(LDI) and32with LDI on DLFE films at L4-5.15(22.39%)patients have facet fluid on the MRI, the mean facet fluid size were3.09mm and mean sagittal plane slippage translation were5.027±1.134mm.52(77.61%) patients without facet fluid or the mean facet fluid size less than1mm.There was no significant difference in the age of the different groups(P>0.05). Thesagittal plane slippage translation of the L4-5, the angular translation of L4-5, thegrade of lumbar disc degenerative, the grade of cartilage degeneration, the grade offacet osteophyte and the grade of subchondral sclerosis of L4-5were significantdifferent in patients with case group compared with controls group(P<0.05). There was significant correlation between the mean facet fluid size and the anteriortranslation on the case group.Conclusion: The control group has better stability than the case group. There is apositive correlation between the facet fluid size and the sagittal plane translation ofthe L4-5in the degenerative spondylolisthesis.