Herniation of a Calcified Cervical Disc Into the Foramen Transversarium in an 8-Year-Old Child

Abstract

The natural history of cervical disc calcification is usually benign. A computed tomography scan can be performed for patients in whom a calcified disc herniation is suspected on the plain films. In this case of herniation into the foramen transversarium, magnetic resonance angiography was useful to evaluate the integrity of the vertebral arteries. Spontaneous resolution of the herniated disc and return to normal function can be expected with conservative treatment.

Cervical intervertebral disc calcification with extreme lateral herniation in a child: T2-weighted signal intensity of the involved disc can be restored to normal

“…Nevertheless, patients with cervical IDC frequently present with neck pain and occasionally associate with neurological deficit [1-3, 5, 9, 12, 15, 18], fever [6], torticollis [1,10,14,17] or dysphagia [1,8]. All cases of cervical IDC reviewed were symptomatic with neck pain, of whom 11 (57.9 %) had neurological deficit simultaneously.…”

“…Despite of several possible proposed factors such as trauma [1,4,6,15,18,19], infection [1,3,14,15], vascular nature [2,10,13,20], autoimmune disease [20], congenital anomaly [2,4,7], and metabolic diseases [2,4], the exact aetiology of IDC in children is still unclear [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”

“…In addition, IDC with posterior or anterior herniated calcification has been commonly reported in the literature [1-4, 6, 14, 17]. However, IDC with extreme lateral herniated calcification is an extremely rare condition with only two reported cases in the past [10,13].…”

“…The initial X-ray and computed tomography (CT) appearances of IDC showed high-density masses in the intervertebral space, while T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed decreased signal intensity of the involved disc [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The follow-up X-ray and CT images in most cases showed the resorption of calcification within a few months to several years [3,4,[13][14][15], but it has never been reported whether MRI signal intensity of the involved disc could be restored back to normal.…”

Multilevel paediatric idiopathic intervertebral disc calcification: a case study

“…13,14 Long-term complications include chronic back pain, scoliosis, loss of adjacent vertebral height and anterior osteophyte formation. 13,21 Surgical decompression is recommended for cases with progressive neurological deterioration with risk of permanent damage.…”