Abstract:

Introduction: The aetiology of lumbar pain is multifactorial. One of the primary factors among these is disc degeneration, and degenerative processes lead to endplate changes. This study aimed to determine the incidence rate of Schmorl’s nodes (SN), especially those accompanied by modic changes, among cases with lumbar magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) performed as part of their clinical examination upon arrival at the clinic due to lumbar pain. Methods: This study consisted of 128 patients who were admitted with low back pain and lumbar MRI were taken into the process. Age, gender, pain level has been recorded. All lumbar spinal disc spaces It has been evaluated. The incidence and sizes of the SN reveal SN observed especially with modic degeneration It has been studied in detail. Results: The cases with and without modic degeneration were evaluated using the significance test for the difference between two proportions, and the results were not statistically significant (p>0.05). The cases with modic type-1 and type-2 degenerations were evaluated separately, but the frequency was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The separate comparisons of type-1 and type-2 modic degenerations against type-3 resulted in a statistically significant difference (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study aimed to analyse the prevalence of SN in cases that underwent lumbar MRI due to lumbar pain and to reveal the difference between the frequency, size and pain character of SN in levels with modic degeneration. This study suggests that especially oedematous cases bigger than 10 mm are triggered by type-1 and type-2 degenerations. Analgesic anti-inflammatory treatments can be applied as well as protective treatments and rehabilitative programmes in order to treat these cases. In case of chronic pain, it can be controlled with vertebral fusion, vertebroplasty cement application, bone strengthening and intradiscal operations.

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