Lumbar Pedicle Morphometry in a Sample of the Egyptian Population, Parameters and Measures to Safe Screw Placement

Abstract Background: One of the leading causes of disability world-wide is degenerative degeneration of the lumbar spine. The pro-cess of fixation in lumbar fusion requires screw insertion into the vertebrae. The pedicle is crucial to postoperative healing and spinal biomechanics. Our goal is to compute the Egyptian population’s lumbar spine pedicle morphometry. Aim of Study: The goal is to determine how the Egyptian population’s lumbar spine pedicles are shaped. This would serve as a straight forward manual for Egyptian surgeons to use for determining the pedicle screw’s length, diameter, and trajec-tory before doing surgery on Egyptian patients. Patients and Methods: From November 20, 2023, until February 20, 2024, Cairo University Hospitals will conduct a prospective study. When acquiring a multi-slice volumet-ric CT scan of the belly and pelvis OR the lumbar spine, the thinnest slice thickness (≤1mm) is used, and there is no space between the slices. after choosing the proper display window, multi-planar reconstruction in several orthogonal planes (i.e. bone window). Next, measurements of the pedicle’s height and transverse diameter, encompassing the L1–L5 vertebrae, will be made. Additionally, the posterior portion of the pedicle up to the anterior two thirds of the vertebral body will be meas-ured bilaterally as the antero-posterior dimension of the L1–L5 vertebrae. Repeated measurements compared by side and level will yield mean values. Results: Males generally have larger right side lumbar ver-tebrae (L1 to L5) than females do. The discrepancies are found in all the vertebrae, with L2 (1.367925) exhibiting the largest variance and L5 (0.46226) exhibiting the smallest. This implies that the average size of male vertebrae is greater. Similar to the right side, the data for the left side of the lumbar vertebrae demonstrates that. In addition, males tend to have longer axial lengths than females on both the right and left sides.
Conclusion: Measurements of the lumbar region’s pedicles in a sample of Egyptian citizens. These data are thought to be crucial for spine surgeons in planning the precise sizes of the plates and screws used in internal fixation during lumbar fix-ation and fusion procedures. The anatomical measurements of that specific sample population should be taken into considera-tion while manufacturing the implants.