Would I need operation to treat the findings in MRI report?
Patient: My MRI report said - central and right paracentral disc bulge causing right anterolateral thecal sac indentation.right lateral recess stenosis resulting compression over the L5 traversing nerve on right side at L 4-5 level. will i become alright without any operation ? Doctor: hi,thanks for providing the brief history of you.as you mentioned about the MRI reports you missed to mention about your symptoms. because most of the scans may reveal many things but has to correlate with clinical signs and symptoms of the patient which is always mentioned in the reports.in case you have not tried physical therapy you can please try the same as it is a non invasive way of helping patients with disc injury and other most cases.your physician will help you by medicine which will help you to get ease of pain symptomatically.also to mention that use of a therapeutic ultrasound therapy and TENS for this issue by a physical therapist helps the pain level to come down. post that an exercise regimen is implemented which helps strengthen the muscles and release the compression from the nerve which also reduces the symptoms to a great extent.usually most patient of mine have responded well under the medicine and physical therapy. I never had to recommend the patient to undergo surgery in 99% of cases.with the grace of God I wish you a speedy recovery