During a trial of surgery versus conservative care for sciatica and lumbar-disk herniation, 283 patients had MRI assessment of disk herniation at 1 year. 84% of patients had a favourable 1-year symptomatic outcome—85% of those with disk herniation as detected by MRI and 83% of those without. Disk herniation was detected in 35% of those with a favourable outcome and in 33% with an unfavourable outcome.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
el Barzouhi, A. et al. Magnetic resonance imaging in follow-up assessment of sciatica. N. Engl. J. Med. 368, 999–1007 (2013)
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MRI cannot detect favourable outcome in sciatica. Nat Rev Rheumatol 9, 259 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2013.52
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2013.52
