BACKGROUND CONTEXT In a small prospective study assessing 10 symptomatic and 10 asymptomatic subjects, Schellhas et al. compared cervical discography to magnetic resonance imaging. Within that study he reported on the distribution of pain for the C3-C4 to C6-C7 levels. Four years later, Grubb and Ellis reported retrospective data from his 12-year experience using cervical discography from C2-C3...

STUDY DESIGN A prospective observational study. PURPOSE To evaluate the role of nucleoplasty in the management of discogenic axial back pain; to determine the influence of concordant pain during provocative discography, annular tear and loss of disc height on the outcome of nucleoplasty. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE The role of nucleoplasty in the management of radicular leg pain due to disc hern...

Two different classifications of discograms have been used in a prospective study of 279 injected discs in 100 patients. The five-stage classification of Adams, Dolan and Hutton (1986) showed increased degeneration in the lower lumbar discs and more degenerative changes in men than in women. Exact reproduction of the patient's pain on injection was more common in fissured or ruptured discs than...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spine produces images which reflect the chemical composition of the intervertebral disc. We have conducted a prospective study of the serial changes in the MRI appearance of the intervertebral disc after chemonucleolysis with the enzyme chymopapain. Fourteen patients were studied after single-level chemonucleolysis and the results compared with a control ...

OBJECTIVE To compare the incidence of pain relief following injection of local anesthetic (LA) into lumbar discs that caused concordant pain during provocation testing. DESIGN Prospective collected data review from two centers and compare with published results. OUTCOME MEASURES We compared subjective reported pain relief following provocative testing using the following protocols at three ...

STUDY DESIGN This was a prospective observational study of patients with low back pain and those without after laminotomy and discectomy. OBJECTIVES To determine, using a strict experimental design, the relative pain intensity response to provocative discography in symptomatic and asymptomatic subjects after lumbar discectomy for intervertebral disc herniation. BACKGROUND Provocative discog...