One of the difficulties Buffalo personal injury attorneys face is that they are not only required to understand the law, but they must develop at least some grasp of various medical conditions from which clients may suffer. When it comes to some injuries, such as spinal disc injuries, this problem can become even more complicated because different medical providers are not always consistent in how they classify injury to the disc.
Generally, a bulging disc is a disc that extends outside of its normal boundaries. A bulge may affect a large portion of the disc. It is not unusual for disc bulging to occur as a person ages. A herniation usually refers to a crack in the outer layer of cartilage surrounding the disc. This allows some of the softer inner cartilage to leak out. Unlike a bulge, this protrusion usually occurs in one distinct area of the disk and not across a large section of it. A herniated disc may also be referred to as a ruptured disc or slipped disc.
While this may seem a fairly straightforward distinction, not all medical providers agree on where to draw the line distinguishing a herniation from a bulge. Even more inconsistency arises when other terms, such as “protrusion” are introduced. Some medical providers consider a protrusion a form of herniation, others seem to consider a closer to a form of bulge.
Because of this inconsistency, it is important to not just look to the terms, but to find out what a medical provider actually means by those terms when pursuing a personal injury lawsuit.
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