[Lumbar myelography with methylglucamine-iocarmate (dimer-x). A critical review of neurological complications (author's transl)].

A critical literature review is presented on the basis of our own clinical experiences with complications and distressing side effects of the lumbar Dimer-X myelography. Severe Complications such as spinal and conuscauda-symptoms, epileptic seizures, amnestic episodes and late palsies of the Abducens nerve in literature range between 1 and 9%. Unspecific side effects which cannot clearly be differentiated from pure post-lumbal puncture complaints are reported to occur in up to 28%. The probably underlying pathogenetic mechanisms are discussed together with former animal experiments which revealed a local toxity of the contrast medium at the central nervous tissue and the surrounding membranes.