I saw this the last time you posted it. I’m not sure if I’ll be any help. You do know this a Patient helping Patient type forum, right?
The contact of the fragment to your S1 nerve pretty well correlates to the S1 radiculopathy you’re having although, it could also be from Chemical Radiculitis. I don’t think anyone can state absolutely that your fragment will or will not be absorbed over time, fortunately for you, it’s not in the spinal canal. There have been case studies that have looked at this, particularly involving people that have absolutely refused to have surgery. And there have been very encouraging results, in one case I read that the fragment was absorbed in only 3 months which is unheard off.
As to whether or not the fragment can cause nerve damage, your surgeon would be the one to ask about this because they can migrate, which can have positive or negative results.
References, you’re not going to find the type of data you’re looking for on any patient oriented websites, there have been a lot of case studies on exactly what you’re looking for, but you have to go to sources that are geared more towards medical professionals. You can get the abstracts of some of these studies and I’ll give you a list, but most of these sites require registration and some even charge for full text.
The Spine Journal Online
Interscience wiley.com
Medlink Neurology
Medline (on Medscape.com),
NIH.gov
Google Scholar: I don’t know if your familiar with Google scholar, if not, just do a search on it and when you get to it, do a search on Disc fragment Resorption in the lumbar Spine or something of that nature, it’s a great search engine for the kind of thing your looking for.
One last thing, post your questions on the Neurosurgery Expert Forum; I’ll give you the link. Questions are answered by a Neurosurgeon and he is very helpful, it generally takes him a couple days to respond to new questions, but he will respond. I doubt if he has time to give you any reference sources, but I’m sure he’ll answer your other 2 questions.
Here’s the link:
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Neurosurgery/show/331
Take Care