Intractable Knee Pain Caused by Foraminal Disc Herniation at the L3-4 Level

Lee, Dong Yeob; Chung, Hoon Jae

doi:2017.3.2.29

Asian J Pain > Volume 3;2017 > Article

Case Report

Asian Journal of Pain 2017;3(2):29-31.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35353/ajp.3.2.29 Published online October 30, 2017.

Intractable Knee Pain Caused by Foraminal Disc Herniation at the L3-4 Level

Dong Yeob Lee¹, Hoon Jae Chung²

¹Department of Neurosurgery, Bumin Hospital Seoul, Seoul, Korea
²Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Bumin Hospital Seoul, Seoul, Korea

Correspondence: Dong Yeob Lee, Tel: +82-2-2620-0004, Fax: +82-2-2620-0167,
Email: nsdrlee@naver.com

Abstract

A case of intractable knee pain caused by a foraminal herniated disc at the L3-4 level is reported. A 71-year-old man complained of intractable pain in the left knee despite having an unremarkable arthroscopic exploration at another hospital. Along with computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, coronal source images from magnetic resonance myelography revealed the foraminal herniated disc severely compressing L3 dorsal root ganglion at the L3-4 level. Surgical removal of the foraminal herniated disc at the L3-4 level improved his knee pain. The possibility of a foraminal herniated disc at the L3-4 level should, therefore, be included in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with acute intractable knee pain.

Key Words: Lumbar vertebrae; Intervertebral disc; Radiculopathy; Knee joint