I’d never heard of a transverse process until a few days ago. An x-ray today confirms that one of mine is enlarged - L3 left side. I have felt a bump for a while, the doctor thought it was a muscle spasm. Clearly this must be the source of my ITB problems (compressed nerve root etc.) I only started feeling this lump a month or so ago. Radiologist says that the bone texture looks fine, whatever that means.
What do I do now? I’ve already been on the medical merry-go-round, and will I need surgery now?
It is very hard to feel an L3 transverse process - you really have to see how deep it is under a lot of thick muscle before you can be sure that you are feeling it. There is a fair bit of variation in size and xray appearance of TPs. Although not impossible, it would be a very rare operation to remove one, and a very rare instance in which one would be compressing a root. An almost vanishingly rare reason for ITB symptoms, if they are truly ITB symptoms. My opinion is that the odds are that it is not the source of your problem, though we often say that you should never say never.
Thanks for the reply. My psoas muscle is really tight on the left side and I’m wondering if that has something to do with the problem. Can the L3 be twisted so that you might feel the TP more easily?
The ITB symptoms could be misleading. I basically can’t cycle due to extreme tightness that develops in my TFL, which in turn tugs on the ITB. I don’t have nay pain at my knee, just really bad spasms in the ITB mid-quad and there is some weakness, too.