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health advisory Hospital Health care 2007-11-14 16:20:48

Answer:

Neither, necessarily.

When a disc is bulged, it is herniated. Think of it like a water balloon = if the disc is mis-shapen, but the outside of the disc (the annulus, or the outside of the water balloon) is intact. This means that if forces act on some other part of the disc, they will influence the bulged part. You squeeze one end of a water balloon, the other end moves. ..with me so far?

When the fluid inside a disc leaks out, and there is a frank break in the side of the disc, now that fluid will no longer respond predictibly when you do something to another part of the disc (think water balloon with a hole in it). This is a disc extrusion, and they just suck.

Degeration of the disc is breakdown of the disc, which can lead to all sorts of things.

FYI - the fluid inside a disc is NOT cerebro-spinal fluid (as per previous poster).

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when a disc is herniated, it has slipped out of place,

when a disc is degenerated, it may have slipped out of place, but it is starting to deteriorate, as is the cartilage between it an the next disc..

so, not sure what you mean by leaking...

hope this helps..

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Herniated.

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Herniation is a protrusion of the disc containing cerebro-spinal fluid. Any fluid within the disc, also known as proteoglycan, can be defined as CSF.

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