[jaie1984]

#11207

Respected Sir.
My mother is 60 yrs old. her body weight is 81 kgs. by birth she is having flat foot problem, now her complaints are she is not able to walk properly for more than 10 minutes. she gets pain in thigh.and it becomes difficult to walk. she also has osteoporosis. knee pain. we did her L.S.spine MRI. and we want your opinion on her report. her report is as follows.

mild loss of lumbar lordosis with straightening of spine.very minimal retrostep of L4 over L5. mild diffuse posterior disc protrusion with biforaminal encroachment (left> right)causing neural foraminae narrowing at :-4-5 level.minimal indentation of thecal sac and bilateral exiting L4 nerve roots. mild diffuse posterior disc protrusion with left posteolateral corner annular tear at L3-4 level just touching bilateral traversing L4 nerve roots with biforaminal encroachment.
minimal posterior disc bulges L1-2 & L2-3 levels without significant nerve root displacement.multilevel mild facetal degenerative changes and minimal effusion in the right L3-4 & L2-3 facet joints. degenerative endplate changes in lumbar vertebrae . No evidence of infective focus in the spine.
kindly revert as soon as possible for the interpretation of this report.

[Donald Corenman, MD, DC]

#11208

The MRI only reveals part of the picture. Your mother might have a segmental instability (one vertebra moves on the adjacent one more than is safe) that is not identified due to the positioning of the MRI. Remember that the MRI is taken with the patient lying down.

Standing X-rays with flexion and extension films would yield information that also could be quite helpful diagnostically. The MRI reveals bilateral foraminal stenosis (see website) that is mild in significance (“minimal indentation of thecal sac and bilateral exiting L4 nerve roots”). If there is abnormal motion of this segment, the stenosis could become worse with standing and walking.

See instability and central stenosis on this website.

Dr. Corenman

PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.
 
Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.

[Author]

Posts