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Resolution of Lumbar Disk Herniation without Surgery

record updated
item type
article on a website
authors
Jennifer Hong and Perry A Ball
link
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm1511194
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journal
NEJM.org
year
2016
month
Apr 21

excerpt

A 29-year-old woman presented to the spine clinic with pain in her right leg, accompanied by paresthesia. MRI of the lumbar spine revealed a lumbar disk herniation resulting in substantial spinal stenosis and nerve-root compression.

PainSci notes

“Lumbar disk herniation has an uncertain natural history.” UNDERSTATEMENT. Check out these before/after pictures of a disk herniation that solved itself. Look closely where the arrow is pointing. Read the single paragraph description of the case. No scalpels were involved in this recovery. Now, did your concern level about disc herniations just drop 3 notches? Good, mission accomplished. File under “back pain rarely as bad as it feels.”

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