What is the difference between pain and numbness caused by cervical spondylosis, lumbar spondylosis and cremaster tumors? The pain and numbness caused by cervical spondylosis, lumbar spondylosis and cremaster tumor will be different as the disease progresses. Most of the pain and discomfort caused by cervical and lumbar spondylosis are aggravated by activities; after resting for a period of time, or rehabilitation exercises or physical therapy, most of the conditions can be improved or even recovered. For crestal tumor, as the tumor grows up, the invasion of crestal medulla and nerve root becomes more and more serious, and the pain or numbness will become more and more serious, which cannot be relieved by rehabilitation exercise or physical therapy; rest or lying down also cannot relieve, especially at night when sleeping, the pain will be aggravated, making it difficult to sleep, which is called night pain. This is the so-called nocturnal pain. In the case, Mr. Zhang still can’t get well through massage and acupuncture, and it is getting heavier and heavier, especially more painful at night, which is the reason. This is the difference between crestal medullary tumor and cervical and lumbar spondylosis, and often patients can make a preliminary judgment by this kind of night pain. If patients find this difference early and see a doctor as early as possible, they can detect the tumor in time. However, in real life, often due to the lack of clear description by patients, some details are easily missed, so that they fail to make early judgment whether it is a tumor at work. Besides back and leg pain, what are the other manifestations of crestal medullary tumor? Due to the different locations of crestal medullary tumors in the spinal canal, the sites of invasion of the crestal medulla or nerve roots are also different. As mentioned above, different segments of the crestal medulla and nerve roots have different innervation functions, which may lead to symptoms other than low back pain. For example, some tumors grow at the junction of cervical and thoracic vertebrae, which are easily hidden by lung tissues, and they are thought to be frozen shoulder, and they even undergo nerve release surgery, but their condition does not get better; some tumors grow in the 11th to 12th segment of thoracic vertebrae, and patients are prone to stomach pain; some tumors grow in the 5th to 6th segment of thoracic vertebrae, which will manifest as heart pain and chest tightness; some tumors near lumbar vertebrae and sacral vertebrae will also cause Some tumors near the lumbar spine and sacral spine may also cause problems such as urinary and fecal incontinence. Due to these various pains and discomforts, it is easy for patients to go to the wrong department, such as orthopedics, cardiology or even urology. What should the patient do next after finding these symptoms? Whether the patient suspects cervical spondylosis, lumbar spondylosis or tumor, he or she should go to the hospital for the appropriate treatment or examination. Most people start their examination program with the most basic ones, such as X-ray examination. However, X-ray examination can often only see the lesions of the crestal spine and can reveal cervical spondylosis or lumbar spondylosis, however, crestal tumor has not yet invaded the bone in the early stage, and when it has invaded the bone, it means that the tumor has grown very large. Therefore, X-rays alone cannot detect cremaster tumor at an early stage (of course, X-rays are still very necessary to identify whether it is cervical or lumbar spine disease). Then, in order to find out if it is a tumor, we need to do further “advanced” examination, such as CT examination, which can see the crestal column, intervertebral foramina, nerve roots and blood vessels and other tissues, but still cannot see the tumor tissue. In reality, many people have X-ray and CT examinations, but they do not find any disease, so they stop there and go home to continue to suffer from pain and numbness, or just conservative treatment to relieve symptoms. In fact, there is a “more advanced” test – MRI. Generally speaking, by combining the results of X-ray, CT and MRI, most of the crestal tumors can be detected early. What are the special requirements for MRI of spinal canal tumors? What is the cost of a typical MRI? MRI is a mandatory test for diagnosing all cremaster tumors, nerve sheath tumors and other intraspinal tumors, and is the gold standard for diagnosis. MRI is generally divided into two types – plain plain scan and enhanced scan. The ordinary plain scan is a direct scan without contrast, while the enhanced scan is a scan with contrast into the vein, where there is a tumor, the contrast will collect more, and then the MRI scan will enhance the tumor, like a mirror to reveal the tumor. For all patients with suspected cremaster tumor, “scan + enhancement” should be done as long as conditions allow. However, for those who have a heart stent or a metallic foreign body (such as a contraceptive ring), MRI is not suitable, as it may cause artifacts and be dangerous. In this case, the only way to carefully identify them is through cremasteromyelography and CT. The cost of MRI is not very different from major hospitals across the country. A normal MRI is about 900 yuan; an enhanced MRI is usually more than a thousand dollars. Is it true that the test will be done wherever there is pain? This statement may or may not be correct. In most of the cremaster tumors, the pain and discomfort in the early stage is often limited to the area around the tumor, which is called localized pain. However, some cremaster tumors do not have pain, but they feel numbness and weakness in their arms and legs, and they cannot move around, which actually means that the tumor has invaded the function of the limbs. In fact, if possible, for patients with high suspicion of cremaster tumor, MRI should be done for all segments of cremaster to avoid missing. This is because some tumors grow scattered, such as multiple radiculomas and multiple hemangioblastomas. For example, the tumors shown in the following MRI: cervical/lumbar nerve sheath tumors, intramedullary ventricular meningioma, etc., have symptoms similar to those of cervical and lumbar spondylosis at the earliest stage, and are often detected late and patients come to the clinic only after the tumors grow huge or develop symptoms such as paralysis, which makes surgery more difficult.