[Results of radio-anatomic studies of the lumbar spine in patients with intervertebral disk prolapse and in healthy subjects. 1: Vertebrae, disks and intervertebral joints].

Radioanatomic research on the vertebrae, intervertebral disks, and joints was carried out in patients suffering from disk herniation. The control group aged 50-60 years had no vertebral pain. Significant differences in the structure of intervertebral disks were observed. The height of intervertebral disks in the patients was (statistically) significantly smaller than in the control group. In some of the patients the signs of micro-, aniso-, and poikilospondylia were observed in the lumbar spine. Asymmetry of intervertebral joints was found 4 times more frequently in the patients than in the control group. The spinal anatomic changes in both groups occurred most often and to the greatest degree in the 3 lowest lumbar segments. This is the area most frequently affected by disk herniation. The author believes that this proves a causal relation between dysplastic spinal type and disk herniation.