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Case Reports
. 2015 Aug 31;10(2):55-8.
eCollection 2015.

Bertolotti's syndrome: A commonly missed cause of back pain in young patients

S Manmohan  1 , A Dzulkarnain  2 , Z A Nor Azlin  3 , M Fazir  4
Affiliations
Case Reports

Bertolotti's syndrome: A commonly missed cause of back pain in young patients

S Manmohan et al. Malays Fam Physician. .

Abstract

Bertolotti's syndrome must be considered as a differential diagnosis for lower back pain in young people. Treatment, whether conservative or operative, is still debatable. In this paper, we report a case of a 20-year-old girl presenting with lower back pain for 8 years. We administered injection with local anaesthetic and steroid injections within the pseudo-articulation; however, the pain was relieved for 3 weeks. Surgical excision of the pseudo-articulation successfully treated her back pain and the sciatica.

Keywords: Bertolotti’s syndrome; back pain in young patients; transitional vertebrae.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1: (a) Pre-operative anteroposterior (AP) lumbar sacral radiograph showing the enlarged right L5 transverse process forming a pseudo-articulation with the sacrum. The left transverse process and the sacrum are normal. (b) Diagrammatic representation of the radiographs showing these abnormalities
Figure 1: (a) Pre-operative anteroposterior (AP) lumbar sacral radiograph showing the enlarged right L5 transverse process forming a pseudo-articulation with the sacrum. The left transverse process and the sacrum are normal. (b) Diagrammatic representation of the radiographs showing these abnormalities
Figure 2: Intra-operative picture showing the pseudo-articulation between the transverse process of L5 (superior) and sacrum (inferior)
Figure 2: Intra-operative picture showing the pseudo-articulation between the transverse process of L5 (superior) and sacrum (inferior)
Figure 3: Pre-operative radiograph (a) Post-operative AP lumbar sacral radiographs showing resected area with recreation of the gap between the transverse process of the right L5 vertebrae and the sacrum (b)
Figure 3: Pre-operative radiograph (a) Post-operative AP lumbar sacral radiographs showing resected area with recreation of the gap between the transverse process of the right L5 vertebrae and the sacrum (b)
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