DISCOGRAPHIC FINDINGS AND BACK PAIN HISTORY - AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC-STUDY OF 58 CADAVERS

Lumbar discograms, performed on fifty-eight cadavers in situ, were eva luated for general degeneration and annular disruption, and the findin gs compared with low-back symptoms during life. Degenerative changes w ere more frequent in subjects with low-back symptoms during life (p < 0.01) than they were in controls. Advanced annular disruption, meaning that contrast protruded beyond the outer annulus, was found in nine ( 90%) of the severe pain cases (severe lumbago or sciatic pain distribu tion lasting several days at least once during life), in tent (63%) of the mild pain cases (low back pain lasting at least 2 months but not causing major difficulties in daily life), and in nineteen (59%) of th e controls (no notable or lengthy low back pain at any time) (p < 0.05 ). Additional discographies, performed with the use of vulcanizing con trast medium which, after conventional discographic images, were remov ed from the discs, showed a large variety of forms both in nondegenera ted and degenerated discs, and findings regarded as advanced annular d isruptions in discograms were in most cases contrast being pushed into thin layers between lamellae of the normal annulus fibrosus. The stud y gives evidence that disc degeneration and annular ruptures are assoc iated with low back symptoms, but that abnormal discographic findings are also very common among subjects without any recalled history of ba ck pain, or macroscopic sign of disc degeneration.