[annapurna]

Hello everyone - great discussion! Over the past two months, I've had discograms at a couple of cervical levels and one lumbar level.

The cervical discograms were intended to figure out which disc (or discs) were responsible for progressive myleopathy. Since all my cervical discs were "tall" on MRI with no significant bulges or herniations, were didn't think that myleography was going to tell us much. The discography showed a HUGE posterior tear in c6/c7 which leaked dye right onto the myleon sheath and every nerve root in the near viscinity - plus concordant pain. Other levels were normal or close to normal. Since the myleopathy was due to irritation rather than outright compression of the myleon, discography was able to identify it very well.

My lumbar discogram was intended to check the disc annulus for tears and leaks prior to chondrocyte transplantation. The disc in question is dark on MRI, but still tall. In order to prolong it's life, I decided to try nucleus chondrocyte transplantation. This is a fairly successful technique that can prolong the life of the disc by adding the living cells that produce the proteoglycan molecules in the nucleus. You need to do discography before the transplantation, though, to make sure the disc doesn't have any huge leaks that would prevent it from containing the new cells in the nucleus where they do their job.

I definitely agree with Mark, though about being prepared for action. If you stick a needle into a disc and do discography, you'd better be prepared to take whatever action is indicated: replace, repair, or watch-and-wait.