Millions of people suffer from chronic back pain, and a lot of that pain is related to the spongy discs that separate each pair of spine bones (vertebrae). Disc-related pain can be challenging to diagnose, and determining which disc is causing symptoms can be difficult, too.
Effective therapy — and pain relief — rely on accurate diagnosis, and while an in-office exam, X-rays, and MRI scans can be helpful, they’re not always the right approach for all types of pain. That’s where discography comes in.
At Superior Pain Relief, our team uses discography to evaluate your discs, looking for potential causes of back pain and designing a treatment plan that can help. Here, we explain how discography works and how we use it to diagnose disc-related chronic back pain.
Also called a discogram, discography uses fluoroscopy, or continuous X-ray imaging, to evaluate your discs and the area surrounding them.
Composed of a fibrous shell surrounding a gel-like interior, discs can be difficult to examine using traditional imaging techniques, but discography overcomes that difficulty by combining fluoroscopy with injectable dye delivered through a needle.
During a discography procedure, your doctor numbs the injection site with a local anesthetic to keep you comfortable during needle placement. If you’re very nervous, sedation can help relax you.
Your provider inserts the needle using fluoroscopy to guide it toward the target disc. Once the needle is in place, they inject a special contrast dye that highlights the disc structure and makes it easier to evaluate the disc and look for abnormalities or damage.
Your doctor may ask you to describe any discomfort you feel during dye injection to help determine if the targeted disc is the source of your symptoms. Your input plays an important role in identifying the disc that’s causing pain.
Your doctor then takes detailed images of the problematic disc to allow for further evaluation, looking for tiny fissures, disc herniation, disc fragments, signs of degenerative disc disease, and other disc-related problems.
Based on the results of your exam, we map out a treatment plan to address the root cause of your symptoms for both immediate and long-term pain relief.
Chronic back pain is the second-leading cause of disability among American adults. If you’re suffering from back pain, we have solutions.
To learn more about discography and other cutting-edge techniques to diagnose and manage your chronic back pain, request an appointment online or over the phone with the team at Superior Pain Relief in Houston, Baytown, Willis, and The Woodlands, Texas, today.
