The traditional view that the etiology of lumbar disc herniation is primarily due to age, gender, occupation, smoking and exposure to vehicular vibration dominated much of the last century. Recent research indicates that heredity may be largely responsible for the degeneration as well as herniation of intervertebral discs. Since 1998, genetic influences have been confirmed by the identification...

Although the first reported surgery for lumbar disc herniation was published many years ago, there still remains little agreement for the most effective treatment protocol for symptomatic cases. Many patients with extruded lumbar disc herniation require surgical intervention due to radiculopathy of lower extremities but some neurological symptoms of intervertebral disc herniation may frequently...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to review surgery-proven lumbar disc herniation in adolescents with an emphasis on the distinguishing features. METHODS Twenty-eight adolescents between 14 and 18 years old had lumbar discectomy after conservative treatment for 9 months. Indications for surgery were intractable pain and failure of conservative treatment for more than 6 weeks. Lumbar sp...

Degeneration of the intervertebral disc from a combination of factors can result in herniation, particularly at the L4-5 and L5-S1 levels. The presence of pain, radiculopathy and other symptoms depends on the site and degree of herniation. A detailed history and careful physical examination, supplemented if necessary by magnetic resonance imaging, can differentiate a herniated lumbar disc from ...

Surgical treatment of lumbar intervertebral disc herniation is one of the most common neurosurgical procedures. Besides conventional surgical techniques, in the last more than 30 years, different methods with minimal damage to neuromuscular spine structures are being developed and introduced, all having the purpose of reducing postoperative back pain. The advantages of the minimally invasive sp...

A disc cyst is a rare entity with a clinical presentation that closely mimics an intervertebral disc herniation. Disc cysts are ventrally located, intraspinal, extradural cystic lesions that communicate with the parent intervertebral disc through a ruptured annulus. We present the clinical features, magnetic resonance imaging, intra-operative and histopathological findings of a variant of a lum...

Intradural disc herniation is a serious and rare complication of intervertebral disc rupture. The preoperative diagnosis of intradural disc herniation is still difficult despite new neuroradiologic investigation possibilities including computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging and it is usually diagnosed by during surgery. Here we present an intradural disc herniation case at the l...

Calcification of intervertebral disc (IVD) is an uncommon but well-defined clinical syndrome in children. Despite its benign nature, occasionally, calcified nucleus pulposus can herniate into the spinal canal. We report an interesting case of calcified disc herniation in the thoracic spine. Although it resulted in cord compression and syrinx formation, it well responded to conservative manageme...

It has been proposed that intervertebral disc degeneration might be caused by low-grade infection. The purpose of the present study was to assess the incidence of herpes viruses in intervertebral disc specimens from patients with lumbar disc herniation. A polymerase chain reaction based assay was applied to screen for the DNA of eight different herpes viruses in 16 patients and two controls. DN...