Object: spinal canal walls deformation and its influence on the state of the contents of the spinal canal. Aim: optimization of the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis on the basis of the development of the system of early diagnosis and prediction of severity of disease. Methods: orthopedic, neurological, x-ray examination; magnetic resonance imaging; laboratory methods of diagnostics (main markers of the biochemical indicators of connective tissue, the state of lipid exchange and the level of lipid peroxidation); electromyography; scales - visual analog scale (VAS), the scale of quantitative assessment of severity of neurological disorders (Z), Oswestri scale , the scale of the Japanese orthopedic Association, ASIA scale, the General health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), Mac-Gil pain questionnaire, Beck questionnaire; Bartel everyday activity index; statistics (non-parametric and parametric), correlation analysis, discriminant analysis, method ConsistencySubsetEval, method BestFirst, method GeneticSearch, GreedyStepwise, method, InfoGainAttributeEval method, Ranker method. The created system of predicting the course and results of treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis - expert system "Predictor" - allows predicting the variants of the course and results of treatment of diseases and contributes to the formation of new, revised view about the course and treatment of this pathology. Creation of a system of early diagnosis of lumbar spinal stenosis, the evaluation of prognostic significance of risk factors of occurrence and progress of neurologic deficit of patients, creation of the prognostic statistical system for the outcomes and treatment, makes possible to substantiate and develop a rational preventive measures for differential approach to the treatment of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis, which will improve the quality of life of this category of patients. Developed methodology of prediction of the results of treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis provides doctors substantial information on the further course of the disease, necessary for optimization of the strategy and tactics of treatment of patients. On the basis of analysis of immediate and long-term effects of the conservative and surgical treatment of patients with different variants of the disease, statistical methods, informative method of predicting the course and results of treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis, optimized principles of selection of optimal therapeutic strategies and tactics that allows to significantly improve the quality of medical assistance for patients was proposed. For the first time the system of early diagnostics of the manifestation of the clinical symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis on the basis of clinical, imaging parameters, an electromyography and laboratory results was provided. On the basis of the analisis of clinical-neurological manifestations of lumbar spinal stenosis the clinical peculiarities were presented. Comparative analysis of prognostic significance risk factors of radiculo-caudal disorders in the case of lumbar spinal stenosis was performed. Early clinical-neurological, electromyographical and magnetic-resonance-tomographic manifestations of the disease, the risk factors of occurrence of neurological deficit were identified. Developed and systematized qualitative and quantitative x-ray and MRI parameters of lumbar spinal stenosis. The roles of the size of the spinal canal and its contents in the formation of neurological syndromes, and their relationship have been defined. On the basis of biochemical studies the markers of inflammatory and dystrophic processes in cartilage tissue and the state of the processes of peroxidation of lipids have been identified. Subclinical parameters violations of bioelectric activity of nervous-muscular system in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis were presented. The correlations of spinal canal imaging parameters with the parameters of the clinical, biochemical, electro-myographic results in patients with lumbar stenosis were established. Optimal principles of preventive measures and treatment of this group of patients were presented. The main results of the tеhesis have been used in the practical work of orthopedic-traumatological departments of Kharkiv's health care institutions and in the educational process of profile departments of the Kharkov National medical University, Kharkiv medical Academy of postgraduate education, Uzhgorod national University. Traumatology and orthopaedy.
