This prospective study followed 223 patients with chronic low back pain in a specialist pain practice over three years, using discography, a diagnostic procedure that tests individual spinal discs to determine whether they are genuinely the source of a patient’s pain.
What was studied?
The study tested 644 discs for pain provocation across the group, with no procedural complications. A subset of 195 patients also underwent diagnostic nerve blocks to confirm whether disc pain was the true source, ruling out other structures.
What did they find?
Roughly one in five patients with chronic low back pain, 21.8 percent of the full 756-patient group, had pain confirmed as genuinely disc-related. Among those tested with discography, 74 percent showed a positive discogram, though only 63 percent of those also cross-checked with nerve blocks were confirmed.
Why it matters
This gives a solid real-world estimate of how common genuinely disc-related pain is among people with chronic low back pain, around one in five cases, and shows most such pain comes from other structures entirely.
Why we included it
It illustrates why accurate diagnosis matters before treatment: a plausible-sounding cause like disc pain explains only a fifth of chronic low back pain cases, so identifying the true source guides better decisions.
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What was studied?
The study tested 644 discs for pain provocation across the group, with no procedural complications. A subset of 195 patients also underwent diagnostic nerve blocks to confirm whether disc pain was the true source, ruling out other structures.
What did they find?
Roughly one in five patients with chronic low back pain, 21.8 percent of the full 756-patient group, had pain confirmed as genuinely disc-related. Among those tested with discography, 74 percent showed a positive discogram, though only 63 percent of those also cross-checked with nerve blocks were confirmed.
Why it matters
This gives a solid real-world estimate of how common genuinely disc-related pain is among people with chronic low back pain, around one in five cases, and shows most such pain comes from other structures entirely.
Why we included it
It illustrates why accurate diagnosis matters before treatment: a plausible-sounding cause like disc pain explains only a fifth of chronic low back pain cases, so identifying the true source guides better decisions.