Experience of more than 250 magnetic resonance (MR) examinations of the spinal cord is reported. MR imaging (MRI) using spin echo technique provides an excellent demonstration of the spine and the spinal cord, especially when appropriate surface coils are used. Consequently, MRI appears to be often the optimal imaging modality to be performed in cases of spinal cord tumors, extramedullar intradural tumoral, epidural lesions, syringo-hydromyelia, spinal cord compression by primary or secondary spinal canal stenosis, and traumatic lesions of the spinal cord.