Spontaneous Regression Of Lumbar Disc Herniation: Four Cases Report And Review Of The Literature
Zheng, Y., Zhu, C., Huang, J. F., Manoharasetty, A., & Zhang, H. (2024). Spontaneous regression of lumbar disc herniation: four cases report and review of the literature. Nagoya journal of medical science, 86(3), 370–382. https://doi.org/10.18999/nagjms.86.3.370
View Original Source →Abstract
Spontaneous regression of lumbar disc herniation refers to shrinkage or disappearance of herniated nucleus pulposus without invasive surgical treatments. This phenomenon has been reported and is supported by improved clinical symptoms and radiographic after conservative treatment, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. This article reports 4 cases of disc reabsorption and reviews the distribution of several clinical and radiographic factors of disc herniation reabsorption of total 46 patients, including the four from our study, gathered from 28 recent publications. Some of these factors are present with anomalous distributions. But some factors have similar deviations in patients with lumbar disc herniation. Therefore, more research is needed to explore the correlation between those factors and disc reabsorption.
Case Details
Disease Location
L4-l5 interverterbral disc
Personal Characteristics
34-year-old female
Clinical Characteristics
Suffered from chronic low back pain for 2 year and experienced exacerbated lower back pain and left leg radiating pain after exercising for 1 week. Left straight-leg-raising test was positive. MRI revealed a large l4-l5 disc herniation with l5 left nerve root compression the patient insisted that physical therapy and acupuncture had significant relief for her previous low back pain, so she opted for conservative treatment, including oral analgesics, functional exercise, acupuncture and physical therapy.
Remission Characteristics
After 8 weeks of treatment, radiating pain in lower limb disappeared completely, only slight lower back pain remained. Her latest MRI was taken after 12 months showed the herniated disc almost disappeared completely
Treatment & Mechanisms
Clinical Treatment
Oral analgesics
Non-Clinical Treatment
Functional exercise, acupuncture and physical therapy.