Lumbar Apophyseal Ring Fracture- A Case Report.

Posterior apophyseal ring fracture is a rare condition typically seen in adolescent age group because the ring apophysis and the adjacent vertebral body does not fuse completely and may separate at the cephalad or caudal edge. It usually simulates disc herniation in adolescents and children but disc lesion is very commonly associated with PRAF. The condition although is rare but a high index of suspicion should be there during evaluation of any adolescent patient with low back ache as it is often missed on conventional radiography. Multiple treatment options have been described in literature, both conservative and surgical. We hereby report a case of posterior apophyseal ring fracture with a calcified disc adherent to the dura for which decompression alone without discectomy was found to be an effective treatment.