Calcium pyrophosphate arthropathy of the spine: case report and review of the literature.

Calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease is a relatively uncommon arthropathy characterized by the clinical features of pseudogout, the radiographic manifestations of chondrocalcinosis, and the pathological deposition of calcium pyrophosphate crystals in both hyaline and fibrocartilage. Symptomatic involvement of the spine by calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease is rare except by nodular deposition in the ligamentum flavum and atlanto-occipital ligament. We report a 50-year-old woman who presented with an acute herniated disc syndrome secondary to an intraspinal inflammatory calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease mass at the level of the L4-L5 interspace. The magnetic resonance image and histopathological features of the case are also discussed.