A large painful Schmorl's node: a case report

A 27-year-old woman presented with a 2-week history of low back pain and an unusually large Schmorl's node in the third lumbar vertebra. She reported no previous low back symptoms. Initially, a malignant spinal tumor was suspected because of the irregular osteolytic changes on the computed tomograms and high uptake with technetium bone mineral scanning. The lesion was subsequently diagnosed by discography as a Schmorl's node. The patient has now been followed for 3 years. At the time of this writing, she has been without low back symptoms or signs. Using serial computed tomography, we observed morphological changes in the Schmorl's node that were similar to those processes observed with fracture healing.