Radiology Corner: Case #6

The latest Radiology Corner case investigates a patient with a long standing history of back pain.

A 75 year old gentleman presents with a long standing history of back pain. He struggles to walk more than a 100 metres without needing to sit down as he reports his legs start to feel like jelly. Sitting down only makes his back pain worse.

  • What would you watch out for on examination?

He goes on to have an MRI scan of the lumbar spine and a sagittal and axial view are shown below.

  • What can you see?
Radiology case #5_1
Radiology case #5_2

Click below for answers.

Further Reading

  1. Boody Bs, Savage J W: Evaluation and treatment of lumbar facet cyst, J Am Acad Orthop Surg, 2016 Dec 24 (12):829 – 842 
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27792054/
  2. Radiopaedia.org Spinal Synovial Cyst
    https://radiopaedia.org/articles/spinal-synovial-cyst-1?lang=gb