cervical spinal MRI

[skychick]

I just had an mri done and I am needing help in understanding it.
I have a lot of pins and needles in my left arm and it is getting worse.
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you. :)

MRI:

C4-C5 – There is bulging of the disc. There is also facet hypertrophy on the left.  Left foraminal stenosis is seen and likely encroaches on the left C5 nerve root.

C5-C6 – There is bulging of the disc. Effacement of the thecal sac anterio to the cord is seen.   No Frank neural impingement is seen.

C6-C7 – There is a left paracentral disc herniation with anterior impingement on the thecal sac. No Frank cord impingement is seen.

No Intrinsic neural abnormalities are identified.  

Impression:   Multilevel cervical spondylosis.  There is left foraminal stenosis at C4-C5 which likely encroaches on the left C5 nerve root.

[Kalvin]

Spondylosis is just a general term referring to degenerative osteoarthritis of the joints or the spine.

A lot of people have disc bulges, its a normal part of aging and in a lot of cases they don't cause any problems. So the one you have at C5-6 isn't causing any problems and neither is the effacement of the thecal sac. Effacement in this case means rubbing out or pushing on and thecal sac is the outer covering of the spinal canal. So the disc is pushing on the thecal sac a little, this doesn't generally cause any symptoms. Your spinal cord is fine at this level.

You have another bulge at C6-7 actually its a herniation there's kind of a blurry line between a herniation and a bulge, but the report doesn't say whether or not it has ruptured, I'm thinking it hasn't, I don't know. Regardless, all it's doing is pushing on the thecal sac which is really no big deal. Your spinal cord is okay at this level too.

C4-5 this is where your problem is. Like the other levels you have a disc bulge, however this one is causing foraminal stenosis. What that means is that the bulge is going into the neural foramen, those are small holes or canals that the nerve roots travel through from the spinal canal. Stenosis means narrowing, if the disc bulge is big enough, it can go into this area and pinch the nerves. Your report says that its likely that your C5 nerve root on the left side is being affected. That correlates with the pins and needles in your left arm, is this upper arm? Do you have any neck pain, how's your shoulder?

The good news is that if that's the only symptom you have, this thing isn't that bad yet. You could probably work in out in Physical Therapy, how long have you been dealing with this?