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Lumbar Problem

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Hi I am 48 year old male who for the past 6 months has experienced leg pain expecially when walking up steps and i have noticed my left foot trying to point inwards. i have leg pain when laying down also. 8 years ago i have compression fractures of t9 t10 and t11 they have healed. I just received the report from an lumbar mri and do not see my ortho till apr 4th so i am a bit anxious when reading the results. Can someone explain all this to me. The report goes. There are normal appearing intravertebral discs at the t12-l1, l1-2 and the l2-3 leverls. There is congenital spinal canal stenosis from the l3-4 level inferiorly. At the l3-4 level, there is a broad based disc bulge, as well as mild prominence of the ligamentum flavum. There is mild central canal stenosis. L4-5 This level demonstrates a broad neck disc herniation of the protusion type into the subarticular and far lateral location on the left. This appears to contact the exiting L4 nerve root. The R L4 nerve root appears to exit normally. There is a left greater than right lateral recess stenosis. The central canal stenosis is graded as mild. There are facet degenerative changes at this level. L5-S1 The facets are relatively unremarkable at this level. The neural framina are patent. There is a small disc herniation of the broad neck protrusion type anteriorly. This does not contact any of the adjacent neural structures. There is bilateral lateral recess stenosis.
Can anyone help explain all this.
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replied May 3rd, 2007
Analysis
hmm, i know that stenosis means a narrowing and it's not a good thing, also the broad based L3-5 disc bulge I would guess to mean that it is a large bulge. It sounds like your L4-5 discs are the main problem, the ones that are pushing on your nerve and causing the specific pain. The website http://www.spine-health.com has been very useful for me. I am getting ready to have a microdiscetomy next week on my l4-l5 and l5-s1.
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