HIZs and leaking discs may cause various combinations of neck pain, headaches and pain in the face, shoulders, arm(s) and hand(s) It may also cause numbness or ‘pins & needles’ in the face, shoulder, arm or hand and may also be associated with weakness of shoulder, elbow, wrist or hand movements. As the nerve becomes more swollen weakness may develop resulting in “foot drop” (difficulty lifting the toes and foot up) or weakness when pushing off with the foot. pins and needles develops sometimes with a feeling of cold or scalding water or a sense of ants crawling up and down the leg. When the HIZ causes noxious breakdown products to be ejected on to the adjacent nerves, the pain spreads below the knee (termed Sciatica) and. Various combinations of pain in the lower back, buttock, groin one or both leg(s) can arise either from irritation within the disc itself. The source can be confirmed by Spinal Probing and Discography in the aware state with the symptoms being compounded by the presence of scarring induced by a reaction to these leaking products. In fact the MRI scan may show the presence of a HIZ, annular tear or dehydrated (“Black”) disc. Unfortunately many physicians will reach for a psychological explanation for these symptoms. For this reason, medical professionals pay close attention to the symptoms as a first step in evaluating what the problem may be, before moving on to more focused diagnostic procedures. One of the complications in diagnosing a High Intensity Zone is that whilst the apparent pain or problem may manifest itself in one part of the body, the actual cause of the problem can lie in a different part of the spinal region. The symptoms may present as pins and needles, cold or scalding water or a sense of ants crawling up and down the body in these territories. This takes the form of diffuse often intense pain across the back, spreading up to the thoracic spine, down to involve the sacrum and coccyx, deeply in to the pelvis or perineum and extensively down one or both legs. As degeneration proceeds the patient develops various combinations of back, buttock and leg pain, numbness, muscle weakness and often widespread “Dysaesthaesia”. It recurs again on an increasingly frequent basis ultimately resulting in residual neck or back symptoms between more serious outbursts of pain. The pattern of symptoms is often one of an initial burst of pain in the back or neck which may be disabling for a number of days and resolves.

The condition most commonly arises in the neck (cervical spine) or lower back (lumbar spine). Where does it hurt?Ī High Intensity Zone or bulge can occur anywhere along the length of the spinal column from the neck to the lower back. They appear to range from non-irritant to highly painful.

The effects of the HIZs depends on the noxious degree of the contents and the direction of flow of these breakdown products.

The fluid collection may leak gradually through the remaining disc wall slowly or the disc wall may burst and the contents will leak more frankly.

These canals eventually become lined with endothelium (same cells which line the veins). Here they follow serpiginous pathways spreading round between the leaves of the disc wall or accumulating in a collection of fluid.

A gradual progression of the internal degeneration within the disc, forming little fluid collections in the disc which gradually amalgamate to form fissures which reach to the back wall of the disc.The granulation may mature and form a cyst and fluid collection. Repair commences and permeates in to the disc wall and disc contents as granulation tissue containing fibrous tissue and blood vessels. This may be due to a single or repetitive injury. A pull-off injury of some of the disc wall fibres from the verbral body margin during a flexion and rotation injury.The origin of these HIZ may be multi-factorial. It may be associated with bulging of the disc wall (Disc Protrusion), leakage of products from within the disc and or a small tear in the wall of the disc. An accumulation of breakdown products within the disc and disc wall which may or may not be irritant to neighbouring structures.An area of healing (Granulation tissue) within the disc and wall of the disc.If you have a High Intensity Zone (HIZ) then you are suffering with an area in a ‘disc(s)’ of soft tissue which separate the vertebrae in the spinal column, which on the MRI scan has increased intensity. HIGH INTENSITY ZONE SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT What exactly is a High Intensity Zone?

Intensity of piezo disc