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The spine has several sections, each denoted by a letter. Starting from the top, C=cervical spine (neck); T=thoracic spine (upper body); L=lumbar spine (lower body); and S=sacral or sacrum (just above the talbone). (There is also the coccyx, or tailbone, which in most is one solid bone, and has no specific letter denotation.) Each section has multiple bones called vertebrae that are numbered. There are spaces in between each vertebra called discs. These are circular pieces of cartilage filled with a jelly-like material called the nucleosus pulposus. These discs serve as a cushion between the bones, and are crucial to allowing the spine to flex and bend freely. Discs are named by using the position of the vertebrae that "sandwich" it, in this case, L5,S1 (the 5th lumbar vertebra and 1st sacral vertebra). Dessication means drying out. So, in layman's terms, the disc in the lowest part of the lumbar spine has dried out, which means that the it is less able to provide cushioning from the bones during movement.

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16y ago

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