Capacious Spinal Canal

[theBadCormorant]

I am now recovering from my second herniation, A very severe one 5 years ago at L4-L5 that involved motor loss and took me nearly two years to fully recover from. And a second herniation just over two months ago at the Lumbar sacral junction. Not as serious as the first but still involved numbness and astonishing amounts of pain. I am about 10 weeks into this one and thankfully I am now mostly pain free and think I'm doing OK (famous last words) have even had to go back to work

Both the MRI's that I have had have shown that my spinal canal and formen are "Capacious" My doctor seems to ignore all the bad stuff in my MRIs and instead enthuses over the word Capacious, and likes to tell me how those who have nice big roomy spinal canals usually recover quickly and well.

Now I certainly see the obvious benefits of a capacious canal over a stenosis. But is my doctor correct? do we have any visitors or members of the site who have long term problems who also have MRI's that show Capacious spinal canals?

[Maria]

I never had the word capacious used in any of my reports however my lumbar spinal canal was always described as large. I had years of pretty horrific pain and small bulges. No doctor every told me my very large spinal canal meant that I would have less pain but I was told that my subjective complaints didn't match the clinical findings (on MRI re size of bulges). Still discectomies were performed due to continuing complaints and a 3 level global fusion was offered later when discectomies failed and when I didn't do the fusion then a 2 level ADR was offered and later a hybrid surgery with ADR at L4 and fusion at L5S1. I did not have any more surgeries after the failed discectomies.

I had often wondered if my large spinal canal made my bulges seem smaller than they actually were. Like you I figured it was better than having stenosis then again considering the degree of pain I had for years (30) I'm not sure it made any difference in my pain only in what surgery might be an option for relief.

[theBadCormorant]

Originally Posted by Maria

I never had the word capacious used in any of my reports however my lumbar spinal canal was always described as large. I had years of pretty horrific pain and small bulges. No doctor every told me my very large spinal canal meant that I would have less pain but I was told that my subjective complaints didn't match the clinical findings (on MRI re size of bulges). Still discectomies were performed due to continuing complaints and a 3 level global fusion was offered later when discectomies failed and when I didn't do the fusion then a 2 level ADR was offered and later a hybrid surgery with ADR at L4 and fusion at L5S1. I did not have any more surgeries after the failed discectomies.

I had often wondered if my large spinal canal made my bulges seem smaller than they actually were. Like you I figured it was better than having stenosis then again considering the degree of pain I had for years (30) I'm not sure it made any difference in my pain only in what surgery might be an option for relief.

Gosh - you have certainly been through the mill, and I think I'm suffering after 5 or 6 weeks of pain.....

I'm very surprised they operated when your symptoms did not match up with MRI findings - a sort of wild 'stab in the dark' approach. I doubt the NHS (United Kingdom) would do any surgery under such circumstances. But then again the NHS will only do surgery in the most desperate of situations, I'm never sure if this is because they are too mean to spend our money, or they are genuine in suggesting surgery should always be the very last resort.

[Maria]

That's actually pretty common I think that people's complaints re back pain are pretty intense and the findings may be less "dramatic" per MRI. It's not that I didn't have findings as I did and for years plus when someone continues to complain of certain things for years that's different than complaining for a week or 3. I also had some reflex changes and so forth in terms of clinical findings that moved me towards surgery.

I tried to wait as long as I could before having my first surgery like from point of injury to point of surgery 1st time 8 years.

However I would say in a capitalist society where surgery means $ I'm pretty sure if someone complains loud and long enough and there are findings documented on MRI, CT and such then yes surgery will be performed if patient is seeking that and there's a surgery to fit the complaint/findings.

Insurance companies have had a tighter reign on things in the last 10 years or so and probably getting tighter though I don't doubt it's easier to get surgery here in the USA than in the UK for back probs as well as other.