The postsurgical lumbosacral spine - Magnetic resonance imaging evaluation following intervertebral disk surgery, surgical decompression, intervertebral bony fusion, and spinal instrumentation

One of the most challenging areas of diagnosis is to be found in acquiring and interpreting medical images in the patient who has undergone lumbosacral surgery for spinal degenerative disease. The sections of this article illustrate the features of expected and abnormal postsurgical spinal imaging. These discussions provide the background, practical information, and graphic examples necessary to enable the medical imaging physician to approach better the clinicoradiologic evaluation of the postsurgical patient.