Question
I just received my MRI of my back and not sure exactly what it means as far as how critical the condition is.  My husband seems to feel that I should get surgery now instead of later because of my age of 52.  I would rather exhaust all alternatives before someone cutting on my back.  This is what my MRI report states "At the L3-4 level, mild posterior hypertrophic, spurring and disk bulge is seen.  Moderate facet arthropathy is seen.  No significant central stenosis is seen.  At the L4-5 level, shallow, moderate-sized protruding disk is seen.  This causes some mild mass effect on the anterior thecal sac.  Moderate degenerative changes are seen involving the fact joints.  Thickening of ligamentum flavum is seen.  This results in mild acquired central spinal stenosis.  No significant neural foraminal narrowing is see.  At the L5-S1 level, mild posterior hypertropic spurring and disk bulge is seen.  Mild-to-moderate facet arthropathy is seen.  No signfiicant central stenosis is seen.  Mild-to-moderate righ neural foraminal narrowing is identified.
Degenerative changes are seen as described above.  Broad-bse moderate-sized central L4-5 protruding disk.  In conjunction with degenerative changes, this results in mild acquired central spinal stenosis.  Mile-to-moderate right L5-S1 neural foraminal narrowing."
I am being treated with neurapatin (sp?) for right now been on it for two weeks.  Shouid I consider surgery at this age or put it off and how serious is what I am looking at?

Thank you

Cindy

Answer
Surgery should always be your last resort, a recent article published in the New York Times discussed how back surgery is often over recommend and patients that undergo surgery fair no better long term then patients that abstained.http://spinaldiscdecompressiontherapy.blogspot.com/2010/06/surgery-too-often-fails-for-back-pain.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
I would look into non-surgical spinal decompression prior to considering back surgery.