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What Does The Following MRI Report Indicate?
Can any one explain what all this means? I m a 29 year old female with pain for the past 8 years with no relief from medications (NSAIDS, nerve pain meds, and regular pain meds, pain injections) physical therapy, chiropractic, and I lost 35lbs! I got a recent MRI but even tho I work in the medical industry I don t understand how it all fits together. MRI: L4/5 there is posterior disc bulge with annular disruption with superimposed small central disc protrusion causing indentation over the anterior aspect of thecal sac. The . There is mild narrowing of neural foramina on both sides. Mild facet arthrosis is seen Also do I need surgery and if so what kind?
Tue, 29 Jan 2019
Hello,
The MRI report shows that you have a disc herniation that is causing a little pressure on the thecal sac (the sac where the nerves that come from the spine come out to go to the legs), it also is causing some pressure in the sides of the vertebra in the level where the L4/L5 nerve root is coming out of the spine and the last one is the most likely the cause of the pain in your case.
The thecal sac is a structure that has a lot of space and unless the narrowing is pronounced it does not cause any problems.
The decision to have a surgery or not depends on many factors, and very important is presence of other symptoms like problems with bowel or urine control, numbness in the private are, neurological changes in the legs in physical examination, etc.
Most of the time pain killers and physiotherapy are all that are needed. Back surgery is not found to improve outcome in many patients that have the surgery unless the above symptoms or findings are present.
I hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Antoneta Zotaj,
General & Family Physician
The MRI report shows that you have a disc herniation that is causing a little pressure on the thecal sac (the sac where the nerves that come from the spine come out to go to the legs), it also is causing some pressure in the sides of the vertebra in the level where the L4/L5 nerve root is coming out of the spine and the last one is the most likely the cause of the pain in your case.
The thecal sac is a structure that has a lot of space and unless the narrowing is pronounced it does not cause any problems.
The decision to have a surgery or not depends on many factors, and very important is presence of other symptoms like problems with bowel or urine control, numbness in the private are, neurological changes in the legs in physical examination, etc.
Most of the time pain killers and physiotherapy are all that are needed. Back surgery is not found to improve outcome in many patients that have the surgery unless the above symptoms or findings are present.
I hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Antoneta Zotaj,
General & Family Physician
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