Original Article

LUMBAR FACET JOINT ANGLES: A MORPHOMETRIC STUDY

  • Selçuk ÖZDOĞAN
  • Eyüp Can SAVRUNLU
  • Erek ÖZTÜRK
  • Elif Evrim ÖNER
  • Erdinç CİVELEK
  • Serdar KABATAŞ

Received Date: 12.07.2016 Accepted Date: 18.09.2016 J Turk Spinal Surg 2016;27(4):209-212

Introduction:

Our aim is to make a database of lumbar facet joint angles to understand the mean values and standard deviations so we can predict the values in lumbar facet joint pathologies.

Materials-Methods:

We investigated the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of lumbar spine obtained in adult patients (n=202) who were admitted to our hospital for emergency and outpatient clinics retrospectively. Facet joint angles were measured on axial images of MRI according to Grobler’s method.

Results:

202 patients (102 females, 50.49 %, and 100 males, 49.51 %, respectively) were included in the study. Accordingly, mean age of female was 37,03 ± 11,52 years and male was 37,55±11,53 years, respectively. None of the variables were found to be significantly different between genders (p>0.05).

Conclusion:

We tried to evaluate the mean values of facet joint angles in lumbar vertebras in order to make a database for the comparison studies that investigate the pathologies of facet joints and other spinal diseases.

Keywords: Facet joint angle, Lumbar vertebras, Magnetic Resonance Imaging.