The significance of venous return impairment in ischemic radiculopathy and myelopathy.

Because much of the symptomatology consequent to the constrictive lesions of spinal degenerations may be the result of radicular neurischemia, medullary neurischemia, or both, the structure and responses of the nerve root vasculature to compression or tension are discussed. Although the original investigations concentrated on the arterial side of the radiculomedullary circulation, more recent research has indicated that the venous return phase is far more susceptible to the effects of both intraspinal and extraspinal pathologic conditions.