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Diagnosed Of Discitis After MRI. Is It Serious? Second Opinion?
My MRI recently showed "surrounding soft tissue edema, there is some suspicion for discitis between L4-L5. Dr said 2nd MRI showed in layman's term "an abscess" and had to be removed, along with other repairs to the discs. Should I get a 2nd opionion? Should this surgery be immediate? Is there some form of biopsy that could be done to verify the MRI suspicion?
Mon, 6 May 2013
Dear friend, welcome to Healthcaremagic!
I am Dr. Prasad Akole (Critical Care Expert- http://bit.ly/Dr-Prasad-Akole) and am glad to address to your query here.
Your MRI shows discitis at lumbar 4 and 5 interspace- which means there is an inflamed inter-vertebral disc with swelling around. Most commonly it is from infection and if your doctor feels it matches the clinical picture of an abscess (pus collection), it is a threat to the spinal cord and nerves to get infected and vertebral spread and destruction.
It needs to be tackled urgently. An abscess needs removal and debridement of the affected area.
This may mean a surgical repair in your case. You may take a second opinion.
A CT scan guided percutaneous needle aspiration of the pus may be done under local anaesthesia to just confirm the diagnosis and if pus is found, definitive surgery can be undertaken.
I hope to have answered your query satisfactorily. I would be glad to answer any further queries. Take care and please keep me informed of your progress at http://bit.ly/Dr-Prasad-Akole
Good Luck!
As it helps us to improve continuously, may I request you to write a rating review before you ‘accept’ and ‘close’ the query.
Thank you!!
I am Dr. Prasad Akole (Critical Care Expert- http://bit.ly/Dr-Prasad-Akole) and am glad to address to your query here.
Your MRI shows discitis at lumbar 4 and 5 interspace- which means there is an inflamed inter-vertebral disc with swelling around. Most commonly it is from infection and if your doctor feels it matches the clinical picture of an abscess (pus collection), it is a threat to the spinal cord and nerves to get infected and vertebral spread and destruction.
It needs to be tackled urgently. An abscess needs removal and debridement of the affected area.
This may mean a surgical repair in your case. You may take a second opinion.
A CT scan guided percutaneous needle aspiration of the pus may be done under local anaesthesia to just confirm the diagnosis and if pus is found, definitive surgery can be undertaken.
I hope to have answered your query satisfactorily. I would be glad to answer any further queries. Take care and please keep me informed of your progress at http://bit.ly/Dr-Prasad-Akole
Good Luck!
As it helps us to improve continuously, may I request you to write a rating review before you ‘accept’ and ‘close’ the query.
Thank you!!
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