Anatom3DNucleus pulposus L2-L3
Nucleus pulposus L II–L III · Rosolovité jádro ploténky L2–L3
Joints & cartilage
Looks like
The soft, gel-like core of the disc between L2 and L3 in the lower back, sitting slightly behind the disc's centre inside a ring of tough fibres.
What it does
Mostly water held in a gel; it spreads load evenly across the vertebrae and acts as the pivot on which this level bends.
Keeping it well
A bulge at L2–L3 can pinch the L3 nerve, giving pain in the front of the thigh down to the knee. Numb groin or bladder trouble is an emergency.
Related conditions
- Axial spondyloarthritis
- Bone metastases and spinal cord compression
- Cauda equina syndrome
- Gout
- Haemophilia & bleeding disorders
- Herniated disc
- Lyme disease
- Marfan syndrome & connective tissue disorders
- Neck pain and cervical spondylosis
- Non-specific low back pain
- Osteoarthritis
- Psoriatic arthritis
- Rheumatic fever & rheumatic heart disease
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Sciatica
- Scoliosis
- Spina bifida & neural tube defects
- Spinal cord injury
- Systemic lupus erythematosus
- Temporomandibular joint disorder