Spondylosis of the cervical spine with compression of the nerve roots and spinal cord has been a subject frequently written about in recent years, yet that of the lumbar spine with compression of cauda equina is rarely mentioned in the literature.1-3 This paucity is probably the result of misclassification, in that spondylosis of the lumbar spine is frequently interpreted as herniation of nucleus pulposus. Epstein2 in 1960 reported a study of 14 cases. Epstein notes that lumbar spondylosis with nerve root compression is by no means rare. He found 40 cases in 5 years, briefly presented in his book,3 yet this condition is seldom, if ever, described in other texts of clinical neurology and radiology. Lumbar spondylosis, like that of the cervical region, (1) may be asymptomatic, (2) cause nerve root compression at the intervertebral foramen, or (3) cause compression of the cauda equina, analogous to the