Schmorl’s Node

In this video, we discuss the meaning of a schmorl’s node and what involvement it may have in painful symptoms.

First discovered in 1927 by pathologist Christian Georg Schmorl, a Schmorl’s node is also known as an intravertebral herniation. It is usually a common finding picked up via imaging, such as an MRI.

Spinal discs usually herniate towards the back of the spinal column, however, in the case of a Schmorl’s node, the disc material herniates either upwards or downwards into the adjacent vertebra.

Most of the time, Schmorl’s nodes are asymptomatic, however some have been shown to be pain generators. The usual symptom presentation is localised pain around the lesion and in some cases a loss of compression tolerance, ie. The lessening of tolerance to axial load through the spinal column.