Tool for evaluating trunk muscles using MRI: application to study of posture and muscular lesions secondary to surgery

This study was conducted to learn more about the trunk muscles and their interactions with pelvic parameters of spinal balance. Trunk muscle analysis was performed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using a tool developed at the LBM. On axial MRI sections, this tool measures the surface area of muscles, of their contractile component, and of their non-contractile component. The method was applied to study the relationship between posture and iatrogenic muscular lesions following lumbar surgery through a posterior approach. Four studies have been undertaken. The first involved validation of the measuring technique by determining its reproducibility in 30 healthy volunteers. The second, involving 20 patients, studied the usefulness of cholinergic blockade during anesthesia in preventing muscular lesions that occur during posterior lumbar arthrodesis. The third study analyzed MRI changes in erector spinae muscles following lumbar surgery. The correlation between posture and muscles was the subject of the fourth study.