Surgeon Reliability for the Assessment of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis on MRI: The Impact of Surgeon Experience

Article Figures & Data

Table 1

Inter-observer reliability data based on surgeon experience.

Location of stenosis	Surgeon type	CCC	95% CI	p-value (vs. intermediate)	p-value (vs. senior)
Central canal	Junior	0.341 (0.041)	0.259 - 0.419	<0.001	<0.001
	Intermediate	0.645 (0.045)	0.548 - 0.725		0.068
	Senior	0.731 (0.036)	0.652 - 0.795
Foraminal	Junior	0.334 (0.044)	0.245 - 0.418	0.324	0.005
	Intermediate	0.368 (0.060)	0.244 - 0.479		0.036
	Senior	0.511 (0.052)	0.404 - 0.605
Lateral recess	Junior	0.410 (0.047)	0.315 - 0.498	0.007	0.001
	Intermediate	0.575 (0.048)	0.473 - 0.661		0.312
	Senior	0.608 (0.047)	0.507 - 0.692
Overall	Junior	0.362 (0.028)	0.306 - 0.416	0.002	<0.001
	Intermediate	0.485 (0.031)	0.422-0.544		0.004
	Senior	0.598 (0.029)	0.538 - 0.653

Table 2

Intra-observer reliability data based on surgeon experience.

Location of stenosis	Surgeon type	Weighted Kappa	95% CI	p-value (vs. intermediate)	p-value (vs. senior)
Central	Junior	0.664 (0.062)	0.542 0.784	0.289	<0.001
	Intermediate	0.591 (0.116)	0.365 0.818		0.019
	Senior	0.265 (0.107)	0.056 0.474
Foraminal	Junior	0.716 (0.064)	0.592 0.841	0.334	0.056
	Intermediate	0.676 (0.068)	0.543 0.808		0.114
	Senior	0.539 (0.091)	0.361 0.717
Lateral	Junior	0.679 (0.054)	0.573 0.786	0.326	0.012
	Intermediate	0.715 (0.059)	0.599 0.831		0.006
	Senior	0.443 (0.090)	0.267 0.618
Overall	Junior	0.695 (0.031)	0.629 0.761	0.337	<0.001
	Intermediate	0.716 (0.039)	0.640 0.791		<0.001
	Senior	0.459 (0.057)	0.347 0.571