Imaging problems and clinical findings in adolescent lumbar disc herniation: a retrospective study

Disc degeneration probably begins in childhood although low back pain and radicular leg pain is not as common a complaint as in adults. However as yet no explanation exists for the appearance of advanced degenerative changes seen occasionally in patients in their twenties.

We report 12 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 20 among a total of 1068 cases with radiologically demonstrated lumbar disc herniations treated between March 1991 and March 1996.

Most of their findings were in good agreement with earlier and more recent reports. The only different findings worth commenting upon were the common presence of multiple level disc herniations, and the occasional presence of a so called "fractured epiphysial plate".

Depending on magnetic resonance imaging findings coupled with computed tomographic images; we suppose that the so called "fractured bone fragments of the vertebral epiphysial rim impinging on the spinal canal at multiple levels" and "wedges of bone attached to the disc end plate and associated bony defects in the margins of the posterior vertebral bodies" reported to be demonstrated on computed tomographic (CT) images may in fact be false images. Inappropriately angled CT scan slices may cut partly through the epiphysial ring which has totally been distracted backwards together with the firmly attached avulsed disc annuli, designated as an "epiphysial avulsion"; giving rise to the mistaken interpretation as a "fractured epiphysial ring" appearance. Such a mechanism may also involve the posterior longitudinal ligament, which is firmly attached to the neighboring annuli, accounting for the common multilevel involvement.