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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)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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