I've suffered for 6 weeks with minor to major pain in my sacro, buttock, and left shin that was finally diagnosed with MRI as a compressed L4 nerve caused by a synovial cyst between L3 and L4. Saw my previous neurosurgeon who did my ACDF four years ago and he gave me three options: cortisone injections to reduce inflammation, 2-day stay surgery to remove cyst but may have a cyst recurrence later on, and 5-day surgery removing cyst and doing a fusion to limit movement there guaranteeing no cyst will redevelop. This latter choice also involves a rehab stay to learn how to cope with the reduced movement and sounds pretty serious to me!

I made an appt. with the surgeon's recommended pain specialist to look at my MRI and discuss the injection route. Any experience you have had in this situation would be appreciated. Thanks, Tom