The back pain associated with intervertebral disc disruption is called "discogenic" pain. The more common phrase used to describe disc-related pain is pain of "degenerative disc disease." Although frank herniations can certainly be a cause of back pain, more subtle disc problems, such as a simple tear of the anulus fibrosis or subtle derangements of the more central part of the nucleus pulposus, can be associated with back pain. Further complicating matters, it has also been shown that completely normal looking discs on a magnetic resonance image (MRI), which is the best test to look at the intervertebral discs, can be associated with back pain. When the outer part of the disc appears normal, and the disc is proven as painful due to internal derangement, this is called internal disc disruption syndrome. Again, the back pain caused from all of these issues above is called discogenic pain, and some of these terms are more broadly classified as degenerative disc disease.

As the life of a disc progresses, it naturally loses hydration, gradually. This is universal, and will happen to us all. Fortunately, similar to how a normal appearing disc can cause discogenic pain, the converse is far more prevalent. Most degenerative discs do not cause debilitating back pain, and in fact the vast majority may be completely painless. Dehydrating discs are like graying hair, or wrinkling skin. If we're lucky to live long enough, we are going to have degenerative discs on an MRI, or what a radiologist may call "degenerative disc disease", frequently abbreviated as "DDD". The term "Degenerative disc disease" may be used to describe a disc with a tear in it, a bulging outwards, a loss of height, or darker color on specific MRI sequences.

To learn more about Herniated Discs, visit NASS.org

Information sourced from https://www.spine.org/KnowYourBack/Conditions/DegenerativeConditions/Lum...


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