Facet Joint Asymmery in Patients with Lumbar Disc Herniation

The morphology of facet joints in patients with lumbar disc herniation was studied by computed tomography (CT). Fifty patients with lumbar disc herniation between the 4th lumbar vertebra and 5th lumbar vertebra and 20 normal volunteers with no history of low back pain as a control group were included in this study. Three consecutive slices parallel to the L5 superior edge of the vertebral body composed with computed tomography with 3mm interval were scanned to measure with NIH images. The morphology of the superior facet joint of the fifth lumbar vertebra was estimated by a computer. There were no statistical differences in the measured values between the two groups, nor statistical correlation between the site of the disc herniation and tropism of the facet joints. The shape of facet is one of the key points of the biomechanics of the lumbar vertebrae, however, there seems to be no relationship between the occurrence of disc herniation and facet joint tropism.