The Assessment of Spinal Pathology among Taif City Population Using MRI

Background: Spinal disorders are common worldwide. Causes of spinal disorders include trauma, degenerative and congenital abnormalities. The aim of this study was to assess the presence of spinal disorders among Taif population using MRI.Methods: Medical files of 500 patients suffering from back pain who visited the medical, surgical and family medicine clinics were reviewed and 265 cases had spinal pathology based on MRI findings. Information about the spinal disorder for each case including the age, gender, signs and symptoms, differential diagnosis of the treating physician and MRI findings (main disorder, site of the spinal disorder, associated findings) were collected and analyzed. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software and statistical significance was considered when p value is less than 0.05.Results: Our findings revealed bulge and protrusion were the commonest spinal disordered observed in 88.7% of cases. Also, higher incident of spinal diseases was detected in the age groups 45-59 and 30-44 years old.Conclusion: Finding from this study may be used as database for spinal disorder at Taif region. MRI is useful tool to differentiate spinal disorders efficiently.