ABSTRACT

Objective:

The aim of the study is to investigate the facet cysts from MRI of patients from Neurosurgery outpatient clinic even if they are symptomatic or not, levels, numbers and side.

Materials and Method:

Two-hundred and fifty adult patients who underwent a dedicated lumbar spine MRI with or without contrast between 2015 and 2018 at Neurosurgery outpatient clinic are included to our study and investigated from patient’s files and radiological PACS achieve retrospectively.

Results:

Two-hundred and fifty adult patients with a mean of age 62 ± 13 had a ratio of 130 (52 %) female and 120 (48 %) male. The indications of patients to make radio diagnostic MRI were radiculopathy 178 (71.2 %), back pain 197 (78.8 %), trauma 47 (18.8 %) and non-specific pain 23 (9.2 %). We found a total of 362 cysts from 250 patients. There are some patients that have more than one facet cyst. There are more cysts on the left side and the highest percentage for the level was L4-L5. We found only 6 patients (2.4 %) that have symptomatic facet cyst.

Conclusions:

Lumbar facet joint synovial cysts are synovial lined outpouchings that arise from the facet joint capsule. While these cysts may occur at any lumbar level, they most commonly occur at the L4–L5 facets in degenerative facet arthropathy. Considering all spine conditions that can cause radiculopathy, facet cysts are regarded as an uncommon cause of radiculopathy.