[Lumbar phelbography without catheterization. Technic, indications and results in the diagnosis of intervertebral disk herniation].

The authors present a new method of lumbar phlebology without catheterism by direct venous puncture of the femoral veins. An analysis of 300 contrast tests maked it possible to identify different types of pathological images characterized by disappearance and displacement of epidural veins corresponding as a rule to discal hernia when the uncharacteristic shadowy images do not allow one to make a precise conclusion or to determine whether an operation is needed. With equal reliability (96 percent), lumbar phlebography without catheterism is, by its simplicity and harmlessness and the absence of minor and major venous complications, preferable to phlebography by catheterism. Carried out in all subjects, whatever their age, without special precautions, it seems to us to now be the most desirable test to be used in the radiological investigation of lumbar discal hernias.