MRI results...what does it mean?

[penguinz]

I was in a car accident 20 years ago (rolled a car on a mountain...not fun), and although I should have gotten medical treatment, I was young and stupid and did not, and am now paying the price with chronic pain in my neck and shoulders.  I've always been sore, but it's gotten insanely worse this past year or so, extreme tenderness at the base of my skull leading to constant headaches and my shoulder muscles are in constant spasm.  I am seeing a pain managment doctor, but am looking for more than muscle relaxers and pain pills, I want to know if this can be fixed at all.

Four years ago I had an MRI done, but it was never really explained to me...I was just given more muscle relaxants and pain pills.  I am seeing another specialist tomorrow, but was wondering if anyone had any experience with this sort of thing, and if so, if you could tell me if there's any chance of changing things in my neck.

Results:

Abnormal kyphotic curvature of the mid cervical spine centered at C5-6 level.  Slight narrowing of the C4-5 and C5-6 disk spaces.  Anterior end plate margin arthryitic hypertrophy or spurring at C4-5 and C5-6.  No disk herniation.  No apophyseal joint abnormalities.  Spinal alignment is intact.  the spinal cord is of normal size and signal intensity.  No alteration in bone marrow signal intensity to indicate any occult bone pathology.

Impression:  Mild degenerative arthritis.  Abnormal spine curvature, no disk herniation.


As I said, this was 4 years ago and the pain is much worse now, so I'm curios to see if they send me for another one or not.  Any information would greatly be appreciated.  Thanks.

[penguinz]

Hi Selma, thanks for the input.  I'm sure I had whiplash, but the MRI was done 16 years after the accident, so I'm not sure if that would be mentioned or not.  I had no idea one could develop cysts and am now reading up on that, and some about spurs as well.  I'm hoping they'll at the very least take an xray tomorrow....the last time I had one done (about 9 years ago) they mentioned that it looked like I had probably fractured my neck (hairline fracture) when I had my accident because it was showing up on the xray as an old, healed fracture.  Like I said before, I was young and stupid, I should have had it all checked out when I first got hurt, but when you're young you never think of the ramifications in the future.  Oh well, live and learn.

[selmaS]

HI as we age our disks in the spine degenerate...having an injury such as u did, can cause the degeneration to move along a bit faster.

At first I thought u might have whip lash, but did not see that listed.....u can however develop a cyst from the trauma to the soft tissue.....u should get a new MRI and see what changes took place since the last one.

"selma"