Lower back pain Five lumbar type vertebral bodies are presumed to be present. Vertebral body heights are within normal limits. Alignment is within normal limits. Bone marrow signal is benign. The conus medullaris is normal in position.Multilevel degenerative changes are seen, as described below:T12-L1: Diminished disc height with minimal disc bulge. No significant spinal canal or neural foraminal stenosis.L1-L2: Diminished disc height with minimal disc bulge. No spinal canal or neural foraminal stenosis.L2-L3: Mild disc bulge which is increased in the interval and associated with minimal spinal canal and mild left neural foraminal narrowing. Otherwise no significant spinal canal or neural foraminal stenosis at this level. Mild to moderate facet arthropathy, worse on the left; mild surrounding edema.L3-L4: Again seen is a small left foraminal disc protrusion with mild left neural foraminal stenosis and contact of the exiting left L3 nerve root similar to prior. There is no significant central canal or right neural foraminal stenosis. Mild to moderate facet arthropathy, worse on the left; mild surrounding edema.L4-L5: Severely diminished intervertebral disc height similar to prior. Mild disc bulge. There is mild right and minimal left neural foraminal narrowing.L5-S1: Diminutive disc space. No spinal canal or neural foraminal stenosis.Paraspinous soft tissues are within normal limits.
1. Multilevel degenerative changes in the lumbar spine are again seen. Compared to 12/6/2011, there is increase in disc bulge at the L2-L3 level. There is mild left L2-L3, mild left L3-L4, and mild right L4-L5 neural foraminal narrowing. No high-grade spinal canal or high-grade neural foraminal stenosis at any level. 2. There is also mild to moderate facet arthropathy at the L2-L3 and L3-L4 levels with mild surrounding edema and may be contributing to patient's back pain.