[carliecrain]

#6421

hi im 14 years old and i have scoliosis and have ben going to a chiropractor since i was 7. he has almost gotten rid of my scoliosis all together but i was in gym class the other day and hurt my lower back really bad. so i went to the chiropractor he adjusted me then he started to think that it was a herniated disc so we went through the treatment for that the not bending over not lifting anything all that stuff and it seamed to not help so i went to a orthopedic dr he took x-rays and sent me to get an mri. i got an extra copy of the mri to show my chiropractor and told him that the orthopedic dr said i most likely had a stress fracture, he said he had never heard of that but he looked at my mri and he said i had 3 buldges the worst one my L4 S1. and now i went to a dr to make me a back brace i will get it tuesday and i will have to ware it all the time 24 hours a day for a month. my question is how will the fracture heal, how long will it take? and is the normal for my age? .

[Donald Corenman, MD, DC]

#6422

First- if you are 14 years old, I hope you have an adult that can help you with advice and care. Any information I note to you needs to be considered with a guardian.

Your back pain could be from a number of sources. See “Back pain in the child athlete” to understand what can cause this pain.

Pars fractures are not uncommon in a young man with an incidence of one in twenty. If however you have noted degenerative disc changes on the MRI, this is more likely than not the source of lower back pain. X-rays and CT scan are more effective than MRI to note these fractures. It is not unheard of to have pars fractures associated with degenerative disc changes.

Braces can be helpful if the fractures are new. See “Pars fractures” on website to understand how these can be treated.

Dr. Corenman

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