[Clinical significance of lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (Bertolotti syndrome)].

500 lumbosacral plain x-ray injured patients and 1000 myelography of patients suffering from low back pain and nerve root sign were reviewed to evaluate the rate of transitional lumbosacral vertebra. This anomaly appeared in 4.6% in the normal population. The rate of the transitional vertebra in patients with nerve root syndrome was double (8.4%) whereas that with lumbar disc herniation four time as many as in the normal population. The data demonstrate that the asymmetrical anomalies have more clinical significance. The authors consider, that the role of the transitional vertebra is twofold: it can be consider primary in low back and sciatic pain, but in the formation of lumbar disc herniation is secondary. They find the analysis of the lumbosacral plain x-ray is necessary even in cases with CT and MRI.