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Congenital absence of a lumbosacral facet joint: A case report
Nitin Maruti Adsul1, Manoj Kumar1, Shankar Acharya1
1Department of Ortho Spine Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, Delhi.
Background:
Congenital absence of the lumbosacral facet joint is extremely rare, with only 26 cases reported in the literature. Here, we present a patient with the unilateral absence of the left fifth lumbar inferior articular process and reviewed the relevant literature.
Case Description:
A 32-year-old gentleman, who had undergone right L4-5 lumbar microdiscectomy 3 months ago now presented with acute low back and left leg pain following a fall. He is now presented with acute low back and left leg pain following a fall. Plain radiographs of the L-S spine revealed an absent left L5-S1 zygapophyseal joint. The magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography studies additionally confirmed an absent unilateral left L5 lumbar inferior articular process.
Conclusion:
Patients presenting for lumbar surgery may have unilaterally absent lumbosacral zygapophyseal joints, which may impact the outcome of surgical treatment.
