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3 year old - enlarged L5 of spine

1 reply

clinellwipe · 26/03/2025 10:41

This may be quite a niche one so perhaps won’t get any replies.

My son was in hospital for faecal impaction in February requiring 5 days of treatment with laxatives via NG tube. An xray was done at this time which looked quite unusual

I unexpectedly had a phonecall from a hospital consultant today. His x Ray was discussed at a monthly radiology meeting and it was noted his L5 is wider than is ‘normal’ . His L4 was above the 90th centile but L5 much more so. They want to do an MRI of his spine and because of his age this will need to be under anaesthetic , so will take “perhaps a couple of months” to coordinate the staff, radiology slot and a bed on the hospital ward etc.

my husband and I are medical but know nothing really about paediatrics but are in panic mode that it’s something sinister. I kept asking on the phone is this a 2 week wait thing, is there a mass etc and she said it could be an anatomical variation or perhaps spina bifida but it does need investigating to see why it’s wide.

any tiny chance anyone has any experience of this???

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Unseenentity · 26/03/2025 11:21

If it was something they thought was a cancer there would be a specific pathway and very rapid timescale. If you have an assigned paediatrician already probably worth getting an appointment for a provisional update?

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