FORAMINAL HERNIATION OF A LUMBAR DISC MIMICKING NEURINOMA ON CT AND MR-IMAGING

A case of a large L3-L4 intervertebral disc herniation causing a widen ing of the intervertebral foramen is reported. There was a soft-tissue mass within the spinal canal and intervertebral foramen. The soft-tis sue mass within the spinal canal and intervertebral foramen showed mar ked enhancement on magnetic resonance scans after injection of a param agnetic contrast agent (Gd-DTPA). The combination of lesion configurat ion and paramagnetic contrast enhancement mimicked a spinal neurinoma. There exists a degree of overlap between the imaging of herniated dis cs and spinal neurinomas. When this overlap involves several aspects, such as anatomic configuration, mass enhancement, and secondary forami nal dilatation, the differential diagnosis between a herniated disc an d a neurinoma may be problematic.