Spine pictures

The spinal nerve on the left side of the picture is in the "neural foramen"--a canal or doorway for the nerve to leave the spinal canal and go out into the body. Disc herniations, bone spurs from the vertebral body and bone spurs from the facet joints can press on the nerve in the neural foramen

This shows what normal discs look like in the lower back. The central part has a significant amount of water within it and behaves something like jello or like an expensive gel-filled seat cushion. This inner part of the disc, the nucleus, is a bright gray on these pictures. The outer part of the disc, the annulus, is a tough, fibrous layer that is strong. It keeps the softer nucleus in place. It is dark on these pictures and looks the same as the edges of the bone. The inner part of the bone, the bone marrow, contains cells that produce red and white blood cells

The spinal nerves are in the upper part of the "neural foramina", or openings or doorways for the spinal nerves, as they go from the spine to the rest of the body. At L2 (the 2nd lumbar vertebra), the spinal nerve is circled with a white line. The bright material below the nerve is fatty tissue.

The L45 disc (short arrow) is not as bright as the discs near the top of the picture because it has partially dried out. Aging and injury cause a disc to lose water. The loss of water weakens the disc and decreases its "shock absorber" capabilities. In this case, a fragment of the central part of the disc has slipped backwards and upwards, to narrow the spinal canal

The fine white line surrounds the "neural foramen" or doorway through which the spinal nerves leave the spinal canal to spread out into the body. This neural foramen can be narrowed by disc herniations, spurs from the margin of the vertebral body, or spurs from the facet joints

In this patient, a fragment of the L4-5 disc has extruded outside its normal location and is pushing into the spinal canal.

During minimally invasive surgery for disc herniation, a small endoscope with fiber optics is directed from the skin to the disc. In the picture above, the endoscope is in the L45 disc.

This is what the surgeon sees through the small scope. The white material is the disc in the lower back.