[krtrame]

Hello newbie here! I don't understand all the terminology regarding protruding, bulging and herniated discs. For the past 4 weeks I have had neck pain, right shoulder pain that radiates down the entire arm into the hand causing a numbing effect. I have also been having headaches. I will apologize in advance for the long post. The doctor sent me to have a MRI and the nurse called and stated I had a protruding disc pressing on the spine and I needed to see a neurosurgeon??? Here are the results:
C2-3 desiccation of disc but no significant protrusion, buldge, or stenosis
C3-4 mild disc buldge eccentric towards left. Small uncovertebral joint osteophyte on the left side. No significant stenosis
C5-6 mild broad-based disc bulge with superimposed right paracentral disc protrusion. Disc material extends back up to 2.5 mm to contact the ventral aspect of the spinal cord on right side. No significant stenosis. Appears to be minimal signal within spinal cord on right side
C6-7 no significant buldge or protrusion or stenosis
C7- T1 same as c6-7
Impression:
1.)Right paracentral protrusion at C5-6 which appears to mildly compress the ventral aspect of spinal cord right of midline. There is a focus of increased signal within the cord at the level of this compression.
2.) mild disk bulging eccentric towards left at the C3-4 level. No significant spine or stenosis.
3.) Milder disc degeneration at other cervical levels as described above

Can anyone translate this?

[rlee]

Originally Posted by krtrame

Hello newbie here! I don't understand all the terminology regarding protruding, bulging and herniated discs. For the past 4 weeks I have had neck pain, right shoulder pain that radiates down the entire arm into the hand causing a numbing effect. I have also been having headaches. I will apologize in advance for the long post. The doctor sent me to have a MRI and the nurse called and stated I had a protruding disc pressing on the spine and I needed to see a neurosurgeon??? Here are the results:
C2-3 desiccation of disc but no significant protrusion, buldge, or stenosis
C3-4 mild disc buldge eccentric towards left. Small uncovertebral joint osteophyte on the left side. No significant stenosis
C5-6 mild broad-based disc bulge with superimposed right paracentral disc protrusion. Disc material extends back up to 2.5 mm to contact the ventral aspect of the spinal cord on right side. No significant stenosis. Appears to be minimal signal within spinal cord on right side
C6-7 no significant buldge or protrusion or stenosis
C7- T1 same as c6-7
Impression:
1.)Right paracentral protrusion at C5-6 which appears to mildly compress the ventral aspect of spinal cord right of midline. There is a focus of increased signal within the cord at the level of this compression.
2.) mild disk bulging eccentric towards left at the C3-4 level. No significant spine or stenosis.
3.) Milder disc degeneration at other cervical levels as described above

Can anyone translate this?

Hi, My name is Rita and I wanted to respond as I can to your confusion over your MRI results. I am a Nurse Practitioner and while I practice both in Hospital Intensive care units and on Orthopedic floors, I myself suffer from several severe spinal problems and believe me the results can be confusing even to someone who may read and have to interpret these results on other patients, including myself. I believe in past years, Radiologists who read these test can be a little vague, maybe for legality reasons or the fact that more and more Orthopedic and Neuro doctors prefer to interpret the results themselves so they can decide on the best course of action for their patient.
1.)First, desiccation of a disc means that the natural jelly like substance that is normally seen between 2 bones in the spine has dried up. This in turn, can cause the bones to rub together causing pain and further damage to the bones themselves. You can see this as a result of years of straining, an injury to the area or the natural aging process. There is really no cure for getting the fluid back into this jelly like substance.
2.) The report stating c5-6 paracentral protrusion of the disc means that just to the right on the center of the disc, the sac that acts as a shock absorber between each bone in the spine is protruding(or pushing through the bones enough to put pressure on the spinal cord itself. This can cause pain, numbness in areas of the shoulders, arms, hands but the disc contents (that jelly like substance has not yet herniated (or came out of the sac). This doesn't mean that your problem should be addressed or taken seriously though because anything that presses on the spinal cord can cause pain, weakness of muscles, and numbness or tingling(like in your arm (most likely the right one in this case) is present and causing you problems on a frequent basis.
3) The mild eccentric bulging to the left at C3-4 in your report means the cushion (or sac) between those levels is bulging slightly through the bones toward the left side, (eccentric) just means (not in the center, off to the side, in this case your left one) the fact that they see no stenosis (definition of stenosis is narrowing of any open space in the spine that might cause pressure on the spinal cord and its nerves. (so this bears watching but is good news overall)
4) Last, the mentioning of disc degeneration is a medical term that is usually most frightening to patients because many Radiologists who read these reports call it Degenerative disc disease, which makes people think they have a serious disease. While degeneration of a disc may get worse as we age, it may also improve, but simply put it means that cushion/s between the bones(vertebra) of the spine are just not working as well as they once did and may cause symptoms such as pain, weakness, or numbness in the areas they occur in. If the nerves are not affected or the spinal cord is not affected, many doctors monitor the progress on the degeneration and treat a variety of ways., such as physical therapy, certain exercises, anti- inflammatory medicines or other for the pain. Different doctors may suggest different treatments.

I hope my explanation has helped some. It is difficult to explain in writing sometimes what these things mean. Hopefully your doctor will go over these findings in detail enough so you understand completely. I too have trouble at times trying to understand what my own! MRIs mean by the way the Radiologist has written them. It would be nice if they were all written in a way that could be easily understood, yet it is much like any other Physician, everyone is different in how the say what they want to say, especially in medical terms..
I wish you the best of luck, and hope I didn't confuse you more. If you have more questions, I would be glad to try to help if you wish. Have a wonderful day!......Rita

[krtrame]

Thank you for you knowledge! I am hopeful that this can be treated with physical therapy. I see the neurosurgeon in 2 weeks. I just wish this would go away especially the headaches. Thanks again!

[rlee]

Originally Posted by krtrame

Thank you for you knowledge! I am hopeful that this can be treated with physical therapy. I see the neurosurgeon in 2 weeks. I just wish this would go away especially the headaches. Thanks again!

You are very welcome!. In light of the headaches which certainly could be caused by your cervical problems, esp. the C5-6 one, I hope the Neurosurgeon will be able to correct, even if it is surgery. Neck surgery in the cervical spine area has advanced so much in the past few years that if you needed surgery you should do very well!..In the meantime, I hope the Physical Therapy will help strengthen the muscles and other areas in your neck to help you get some relief!.....Keep me posted as I would be interested in knowing how you are doing!.......And Hang in There!.....Rita

[krtrame]

Originally they wanted me to come in on the 11th, but I will be out of town on vacation. I don't feel good and I hope the symptoms will back off a bit so I can enjoy my cruise. Thanks again for your kind words, I will update once I see NS.

[krtrame]

Went to the NS today, he said I had a herniated disc in my neck and ordered therapy. I told him I have had hip and leg pain for the last week and a half and it is painful and limiting me when I walk, he said if he had to guess I had a herniated disc in my back too. He said he would order therapy for that also. Didn't really get a chance to ask questions, as his bedside manner was nonexistent. I have to say, I felt like just another copay when I left.

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by krtrame

Hello newbie here! I don't understand all the terminology regarding protruding, bulging and herniated discs. For the past 4 weeks I have had neck pain, right shoulder pain that radiates down the entire arm into the hand causing a numbing effect. I have also been having headaches. I will apologize in advance for the long post. The doctor sent me to have a MRI and the nurse called and stated I had a protruding disc pressing on the spine and I needed to see a neurosurgeon??? Here are the results:
C2-3 desiccation of disc but no significant protrusion, buldge, or stenosis
C3-4 mild disc buldge eccentric towards left. Small uncovertebral joint osteophyte on the left side. No significant stenosis
C5-6 mild broad-based disc bulge with superimposed right paracentral disc protrusion. Disc material extends back up to 2.5 mm to contact the ventral aspect of the spinal cord on right side. No significant stenosis. Appears to be minimal signal within spinal cord on right side
C6-7 no significant buldge or protrusion or stenosis
C7- T1 same as c6-7
Impression:
1.)Right paracentral protrusion at C5-6 which appears to mildly compress the ventral aspect of spinal cord right of midline. There is a focus of increased signal within the cord at the level of this compression.
2.) mild disk bulging eccentric towards left at the C3-4 level. No significant spine or stenosis.
3.) Milder disc degeneration at other cervical levels as described above

Can anyone translate this?

Hi,

Latest reports suggest that disc hernias that are not emergent surgical cases, will be in the same place one year post-incident whether they have surgery or not. Without the knowledge of a file review, I will simply say you need to rely on your doc/surgeon for your best advice but understand you have options (unless your have significant clinical findings) such as trials of PT (to include traction), conservative medical protocol i.e. Medrol dose pack, epidurals, chiropractic and acupuncture...or a combination of all the above before you progress to surgery. MRI findings are not the answer to your problems...they only confirm clinical suspicion and may bend the curve towards treatment. Your clinical findings dictate where you need to go!

[Nicolaas]

Hi my name is Nicolaas 25years from South Africa.. I've lately been having alot of trouble and are concerned about my health my symptoms is low back pain, burning, electric shock like sensation down my legs left side mostly also loss of control in my leg and hands pins and needles at times a lot of muscle spasms or twitching left side mostly... Headache usually on my right side (pounding) I also have been diagnosed with heart failure (left ventricle) currently on a lot of blood pressure medications. I went to see my neurosurgeon the mri results was : MRI Lumbar Spine. No Significant malalignment. No Visualized significant disc degeneration or disc space narrowing. The conus terminates at D12/L1. On the axials there is an impression of congenital tendency to short pedicles with multiple level facets prominent and early degenerative changes. Particularly L4/5 and L5/S1 . No significant central stenosis. There is resultant multiple level mild foraminal narrowing however no visualized significant nerve root entrapment. Apart from on the L4/5 there is some loss of perineural fat planes around the exiting L4 nerve root on the left and to a lesser extent on the right. No significant stenosis or spondylotic changes L5/S1. Conclusion There is paravertebral degenerative changes and a suggestion of congenital tendency to short pedicles resluting in some foraminal narrowing at multpile levels however this is mostly marked at L4/5 bilaterally and slightly more towards the left hand side than the right possibly accounting for some of the patients pathology. Suggest correlate with the clinical findings. . My docter wants to start with lumbar infiltration corticosteroids every three months and feels I don't need a cut just yet.. Could someone please explain this results more thoroughly for me please much appreciated . I'm really stressed about the weakneSs and loss of control some days the pain is also bad at times but controllable. Thank you