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NEUROLOGY 1992;42:1197
© 1992 American Academy of Neurology

Somatosensory evoked potentials in the evaluation of lumbosacral radiculopathy

David Walk, MD, Morris A. Fisher, MD, Stephen H. Doundoulakis, MD and Masoud Hemmati, MD

Department of Neurology, Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, IL.(Drs. Walk and Fisher)
Department of Radiology, Humana Hospital/Michael Reese, Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, IL. (Dr. Hemmati)
Department of Radiology, Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, IL. (Dr. Doundoulakis)

We performed lower extremity somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) studies in 59 patients with signs or symptoms suggestive of lumbosacral radiculopathy and compared them with results of myelography with postmyelogram CT (myelogram/CT), MRI, and other electrodiagnostic studies. Of 38 patients with abnormal myelogram/CTs, 32 had abnormal SEPs, while 11 demonstrated EMG abnormalities. All 21 patients with normal myelogram/CTs had normal SEPs. SEP improved electrodiagnostic sensitivity in patients with weakness or reflex changes as well as in those with sensory deficits only. SEP was less sensitive in patients in whom spinal stenosis was the only radiographic finding. MRI generally corresponded well with the results of myelogram/CT and SEP but overestimated the significance of disk bulges in some patients. SEP is useful in the electrodiagnostic evaluation of lumbosacral radiculopathy, particularly when EMG is nondiagnostic.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. David Walk, Department of Neurology, Humana Hospital/Michael Reese, 2929 S. Ellis, Chicago, IL 60616.

Presented in part at the 42nd annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Miami Beach, FL, May 1990.

Received April 24, 1991, Accepted for publication in final form November 15, 1991.






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