Is lumbar discography a determinate of discogenic low back pain: provocative discography reconsidered.

Provocative lumbar discography was investigated in a series of clinical studies at the Stanford University of Medicine, Stanford, CA. This work demonstrated that pain intensity during disc injection is strongly influenced by the subject's emotional and psychological profiles, chronic pain behavior, and ongoing compensation claims whether the patient has any back pain illness or not. Pain reproduction was also primarily related to penetration of the dye through the outer annulus and could not reliably be used to confirm the location of the pain source.