How Discography Can Manage Your Back Pain

Back pain is a very common issue, affecting almost 65 million people in the United States. If you’re one of the 16 million who suffer from chronic pain, discovering its root cause can give you hope that it can be treated successfully. 

At Regenerative Spine and Pain Institute in Plainsboro and Manalapan Township, New Jersey, Dr. Ronak Patel leads our teams in identifying where your back pain comes from with discography, which allows us to provide successful treatments.

Understanding discography

It’s possible to have back pain and not know the source of it. If you’ve had consistent pain for a while without successful treatments, a discogram might be your answer. It allows us to see if an intervertebral disc is causing your pain. 

This diagnostic imaging test also helps guide our treatment in your pain management if you have abnormal intervertebral discs, which are shock absorbers located between the vertebrae of your spine.

How discography works

Your procedure begins with our medical professional inserting an intravenous (IV) line into one of your veins to give you a medication that relaxes you. We need you to stay awake during the test to help us understand what you’re feeling and experiencing.

We position you on your side on the examination table, with you slightly rolled forward, keeping you comfortable with pillows throughout the process, as needed. 

We numb the targeted area with a local anesthetic, then insert a needle into the center of the disc we’re examining. We then inject a dye and remove the needle.

Once the contrast material is injected, you can tell us where you feel pain and describe its severity. We may continue this process as we examine additional discs.

The benefits of discography

When we identify the source of your pain, we have the expertise and experience to treat it effectively. 

Discography is an invaluable tool that can give us insight into both symptomatic and asymptomatic issues with your discs. It provides evidence that a particular disc or several discs are the source of your pain. 

Other benefits include:

• Radiation doesn’t stay in your body after the X-ray exam
• Discography doesn’t cause side effects
• The scanning process is painless and noninvasive
• The procedure has a high level of accuracy
• Discography images bone, soft tissue, and blood vessels at the same time
• The procedure provides highly detailed images

Also, the entire process only takes up to an hour, depending on how many discs we need to evaluate.

To learn more about discography and how this procedure can help us identify the source of your back pain, call our friendly office staff or book your appointment online at the location nearest you today.