Objective To explore the diagnostic efficacy of magnetic resonance neurography （MRN） technology for spinal nerve compression in patients with osteoporotic lumbar fractures. Methods A total of 200 patients with osteoporotic lumbar fractures admitted to our hospital from January 2019 to December 2022 were selected as study subjects, and all of them underwent MRN examination, including lumbar spine T1WI sagittal, T2WI sagittal, T2WI axial, short-time inversion recovery （STIR） sequence, and three dimensional multiple echo recalled gradient echo （3D-MERGE） sequence. Using the surgical results as the "gold standard", the diagnostic efficacies of both methods for spinal nerve compression were analyzed. Results The signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） and contrast-to-noise ratio （CNR） of the 3D-MERGE sequence in patients with osteoporotic lumbar fractures were higher than those of the STIR sequence （P<0.05）. Conclusion MRN technology has a significant diagnostic efficacy for spinal nerve compression in patients with osteoporotic lumbar fractures, which is beneficial for clinical diagnosis and treatment and improves prognosis.