Can a disc bulge retuns to its normal place?

Answer 1

First of all, there are a great number of theories as to what should be called a "bulge". Before MRI, physicians could see an herniated disk with a special x-ray study called a myelogram, in which dye is injected. When MRI came about, all kinds of soft tissues were seen for the first time. Radiologists started describing disk bulges, something that had not ever been discussed before. Different radiologists will differ in what they all a bulge. A definitive article in the New England Journal of Medicine established, many years ago, that a disk "bulge" should be considered to be a normal finding.

The healthy disk is elastic. If it were not, our spines would be rigid. In order to allow the bones of the spine, the vertebral bodies, to permit us to bend forward and backwards, the disk must give, bulge and stretch. If one bends forward, it must bulge in the front and straighten in the back. In the standing position, the weight of the body might cause circumferential bulging. In a large percentage of the population, the disk will have some degree of bulge, normally, even when lying flat, as on the MRI table.

A disk bulge should not be confused with an herniation. A disk bulge should not be treated. Unfortunately, there are practitioners who will make a big thing of this normal MRI finding, and try to convince their patients that the cause of pain has been found and that the bulge needs to be treated.

But, since a disk bulge is a normal finding, there is no need to be concerned at to whether or not it will return to its normal place. It is in its normal place already.