The Diagnostic Role of Adding the Hoffman Reflex for L5 Radiculopathy in the Electrodiagnostic Laboratory: A Cross-sectional Study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate changes in the H-reflex in patients with monoradiculopathies involving L5 or S1 levels by stimulating the sciatic nerve and recording simultaneously from the tibialis anterior (TA), peroneus longus (PL), and soleus (S) muscles.

METHODS: Patients with unilateral radicular back pain with L5 or S1 root compression on MRI, participated in this cross-sectional study. The H-reflex over the TA, PL, and S muscles was simultaneously recorded by sciatic nerve stimulation. The H-reflex latency was compared with that of the contralateral extremity.

RESULTS: Fifty-eight patients (29 patients L5; 29 patients S1 radiculopathy) were included in the study. There were significant delays in the latency of the H-reflex over TA (30.95±2.31-29.21±1.4) and PL (31.05±2.85-29.02±1.99) muscles on the affected side in patients with L5 radiculopathy. However, the latency of the S H-reflex was similar on both sides. In contrast, in patients with S1 radiculopathy, there was a significant delay in the latency of soleus H reflex (32.76±3.45-29.9±3.19), while the significant delay was not detected in the TA and PL muscles. However, the cutoff values for the H-reflex latency of all muscles were not found to have clinical significance.

CONCLUSIONS: The study presents that the H-reflex study, recorded from the TA, PL, and S muscles by sciatic nerve stimulation, is of interest but has minimal contribution to radiculopathy diagnosis in conventional electrodiagnostic tests.