It’s Not My Herniated Disc?
March 7, 2011 by Dr. Marc Darrow, M.D.
Filed under Back Pain
Discussions From our radio show:
Many people come in with what they are calling a herniated disc problem because they have pain in their back and pain in their leg and they think the disc is responsible.
Upon a physical examination, what we are finding out is that for many, this is a referral pain from a ligament meaning they have a sprain.
This is difficult for people to understand because they see the MRI, after they have been to the orthopedic surgeon or the neurosurgeon, they see a disc sticking out on the film, and I have have people with discs sticking out as much as 10 millimeters, and that would seem to be what is causing problems with pain, but it is not because it is not pressing on a nerve.
So when we check in the back or neck area we look for what people call trigger points or acupuncture points or referral patterns, areas of the body that when we press on them it refers pain somewhere else in the body. So we have a lot of people come in with referral pain down the arms and legs and they have a herniated disc, but the pain is not from a herniated disc – it is coming from a ligament sprain.
You just can’t read an MRI to decide what is going on with a patient, you have to use your hands and do an examination.
