Reading your MRI report without panicking
An MRI report is written by one doctor for another and is not designed to be read by the person it describes. People read theirs at 11pm, see the word degenerative, and conclude their case is worthless. Usually that is the opposite of true.
The vocabulary
| Disc bulge | The disc extends beyond its normal margin broadly. Very common, often painless, frequently present in people with no symptoms at all. |
|---|---|
| Protrusion | A focal displacement where the base is wider than the displaced material. |
| Extrusion | The displaced material is wider than its base — disc material has pushed through the outer ring. More likely to be symptomatic. |
| Annular fissure or tear | A tear in the disc's outer ring. Can be a pain source in its own right. |
| Stenosis | Narrowing — of the central canal or of the openings where nerve roots exit. Matters when it compresses something. |
| Degenerative change | Wear. Present in most adults over about thirty. Not the same as 'this was not caused by your accident'. |
| Impingement | Something is pressing on a nerve root. This is usually the clinically significant word in the whole report. |
Why 'degenerative' is not the end of your claim
Imaging studies of people with no back pain whatsoever routinely find disc degeneration in a large share of adults, rising steeply with age. Degenerative change is a description of being alive for a few decades.
California's eggshell plaintiff rule means a defendant takes the victim as they find them, and aggravating a pre-existing condition is compensable. The question is never whether you had some wear. It is what changed: did you have radiating leg pain before? Could you work before? Did you sleep before?
See pre-existing conditions and herniated discs for how that is actually proved.
The thing that matters most
Correlation. An MRI finding matters when it matches your symptoms. A disc protrusion at L5-S1 pressing the S1 nerve root, in a person with pain running down the back of the leg into the foot, is a coherent picture. The same finding in someone with no leg symptoms may be incidental.
Questions people ask
My report says degenerative disc disease. Does that mean the crash did not cause my pain?
No. Degenerative change is extremely common in adults with no symptoms whatsoever. California holds a defendant responsible for aggravating a pre-existing condition, so the question is what changed after the incident — in your symptoms and in what you can do.
Is a bulge less serious than a herniation?
Usually, though the terms describe shape on an image rather than how much it hurts. What matters clinically is whether anything is pressing on a nerve and whether that matches your symptoms.
Related
Reviewed October 2026 by Simon Aziz Budhwani, Esq., the attorney responsible for this site. Legal statements here name the California code section they rely on, so you can check them rather than trust them. This is information about the law in general, not advice about your situation.
Find out where you stand.
Tell us what happened and we will tell you honestly whether you have a claim worth bringing, what it is likely to involve, and how long it tends to take. The review is free and there is no fee unless there is a recovery.