Herniated Disk or Disk Bulge - Low Back Pain Series

By Evan Mason

The “Low Back Pain” series is a collection of short, high-yield articles designed to help explain the common causes of low pain from a radiology perspective.

Diagnosis: Herniated disk or disk bulge

Clinical Keywords: disk herniation, disk bulge, disk protrusion, disk extrusion, annular fissure/tear, low back pain, back arthritis, degenerative disk disease, herniated disk

Clinical Problems:

Source of low back pain
Presence may lead to spinal canal or neuroforaminal stenosis causing neurologic symptoms

In Plain Language:

The spine or backbone is made up of multiple bones stacked upon each other in a column with cushion-like intervertebral disks between them. With acute trauma or repetitive movement due to aging and/or athletics, the bones will press on the disks and cause them to push outward in multiple different ways. These are called disk bulges if the whole disk is pushed out or disk herniations such as protrusions or extrusions if only a small portion of the disk is pushed out.

(Location of spinal components)

If you have low back pain and/or a disk bulge or herniated disk and would like a personalized video explanation of your findings, our MRI reading services can help. If you would like more information about related posts you can view our low back pain series or visit our Youtube Channel.