Flexed sitting maneuver for complete lumbar myelography in patients with severe spinal stenosis and apparent block.

A new technique has been designed to improve myelography examinations of the entire lumbar spinal canal in patients with severe spinal stenosis using a single needle puncture. When a high-grade obstruction to the caudal flow of contrast material is encountered, the patient is placed in a flexed sitting position for 1 minute. This technique was performed in eight patients with severe lumbar spinal stenosis. It successfully helped depict the lower lumbosacral canal below an apparently complete block in four patients and resulted in improved visualization of the lower sac in four patients with partial block.