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Degenerative disc disease (DDD) is a medical condition typically brought on by the aging process in which there are anatomic changes and possibly a loss of function of one or more intervertebral discs of the spine. [1] DDD can take place with or without symptoms, but is typically identified once symptoms arise.
Degenerative disc disease occurs over time when the discs within each vertebra in the neck begin to fall apart and begin to disintegrate. Because each vertebra can cause pain in different areas of the body, the pain from the disease can be sensed in the back, leg, neck area, or even the arms.
Sagittal CT of the lumbar spine showing Baastrup's sign. The salient feature of the disorder is the exuberant osteophytosis that occurs at posterior lumbar spinous processes. Osteophytes are coarse calcifications at the edges of bone that form due to repetitive stress and trauma.
Bertolotti's syndrome is characterized by sacralization of the lowest lumbar vertebral body and lumbarization of the uppermost sacral segment. It involves a total or partial unilateral or bilateral fusion of the transverse process of the lowest lumbar vertebra to the sacrum, leading to the formation of a transitional 5th lumbar vertebra.
In cervical spondylosis, a patient may be presented with dull neck pain with neck stiffness in the initial stages of the disease. As the disease progresses, symptoms related to radiculopathy (due to compression of exiting spinal nerve by narrowed intervertebral foramen) or myelopathy (due to compression on the spinal cord) can occur. [2]
Such severe spinal stenosis symptoms are virtually absent in lumbar stenosis, however, as the spinal cord terminates at the top end of the adult lumbar spine, with only nerve roots (cauda equina) continuing further down. [15] Cervical spinal stenosis is a condition involving narrowing of the spinal canal at the level of the neck.
Lumbar disc disease is the drying out of the spongy interior matrix of an intervertebral disc in the spine. Many physicians and patients use the term lumbar disc disease to encompass several different causes of back pain or sciatica. In this article, the term is used to describe a lumbar herniated disc.
People with degenerated joints in the upper spine will often feel pain radiating throughout the upper neck and shoulders (cervical facet syndrome.) That said, symptoms often manifest themselves in the lumbar spine, since they are highest here due to the overlying body weight, mobility and geometry.