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A member asked:
How useful is an mri for lower lumbar pain?
4 doctors weighed in across 3 answers
MRI: Mri of the lumbar spine is an excellent exam for evaluating the cause of pain. It can show herniated discs, fractured, spinal cord pathology, compressed nerve roots, masses, previous surgical changes, and disease of the surrounding structures.
Answered 9/29/2016
5.7k views
Depends: For most back pains that are activity or position dependent, not very. Even for other types of back problems like a sciatica due to a disc herniation or symptoms of spinal stenosis or even a tumor, infection or fracture, the diagnosis is made over 90% of the time by taking time to get a good history from the patient & doing a thorough exam. The MRI will confirm the diagnosis most of the time.
Answered 9/28/2016
5.6k views
Useful: Good study to evaluate back pain of more than 4 weeks duration. Check out Spine-health.com.
Answered 9/28/2016
3.7k views
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