What are the symptoms of spina bifida occulta

Many people are not particularly familiar with the disease of spina bifida occulta. It mainly refers to the failure of the spine, including the lumbar vertebrae, to fully ossify during adolescence. This often causes cracks to form in the lumbar vertebrae or sacral area. Generally, this disease will not cause low back pain, but it is easy to cause strain and chronic low back pain. In severe cases, it can also cause radiating lower limb pain.

What are the symptoms of spina bifida occulta

Generally, hidden fissures will not cause low back pain, but those with severe hidden fissures have weak local structures and are prone to chronic low back pain due to strain. Those with sacral fissures accompanied by free spinous processes can have their spinous processes stimulate the dura mater when bending over, causing low back pain. KITTRICH believes that the fibrous fat masses on the surface of the dura mater at the hidden fissure can compress the dura mater and nerve roots to cause low back pain and reduce or eliminate the knee-heel reflex. When the sacral fissure is accompanied by hypertrophy of the L5 spinous process, stretching the waist can stimulate the fibrous membrane between the fissures or the defective vertebral lamina stumps to cause pain.

When adhesions form between the fibrous membrane and the dura mater or nerves, it can cause radiating pain to the lower limbs. GILLLESPE statistics showed that among 500 patients who underwent laminectomy, 18.2% had occult fissures, while only 4.8% had occult fissures among patients without lumbar spine. Shi Keren reported 46 cases of occult spina bifida, 15 of which presented with sciatica. Surgery confirmed that 8 of them had concomitant intervertebral disc herniation, with the herniation level at the upper space.

Therefore, for patients with clinically occult spina bifida accompanied by obvious sciatica, the nature of the occult spina bifida, and the characteristics of its symptoms and signs should be carefully analyzed. For example, if there are obvious nerve root localization signs, the transitional vertebrae in the lumbosacral region may appear as sacralization of the lumbar vertebrae or lumbarization of the sacral vertebrae. The transitional vertebrae are one of the causes of intermittent low back pain.

Treatment

Generally speaking, no treatment is needed. Due to the congenital defect of spina bifida occulta, many people will suffer from lumbar disc herniation. Therefore, people with this congenital problem should avoid sitting or standing for long periods of time, bending over to carry weight for long periods of time, doing strenuous exercise, or injuring the waist, etc. This is a congenital developmental abnormality. If the gap of congenital spina bifida is too large, phenomena such as spinal canal bulge and spinal nerve damage may occur, and surgical repair should be performed. However, most cases of occult spina bifida do not require treatment, and you just need to pay attention to protection in your daily life.