Provocative discography.
Confirm the disc before any treatment that targets it.
A specialized diagnostic procedure that tests whether a specific spinal disc is the actual generator of your pain — required before intradiscal procedures and sometimes before spine surgery.
The disc you can see on MRI may not be the disc that hurts.
MRI shows disc anatomy. It does not show disc pain. Many people over forty have abnormal-looking discs without symptoms; many people with severe back pain have unremarkable MRIs. Provocative discography is the only diagnostic test that asks a disc directly whether it is the pain generator. Under fluoroscopy, a small volume of contrast is injected into a target disc; if that injection reproduces the patient's familiar pain (and a control disc does not), the disc is confirmed as the source.
Fluoroscopy, sterile technique, and patient feedback.
You are positioned prone with light sedation. Under live fluoroscopy, thin needles are advanced into the targeted discs. Contrast is injected slowly, and you are asked to describe what you feel in real time — pressure, no pain, mild pain, or familiar pain. Concordant pain reproduction at one level and absence of pain at an adjacent control level is the diagnostic finding. The procedure typically takes thirty to sixty minutes.
Required before intradiscal procedures. Useful before fusion.
Discography is appropriate for patients being considered for intradiscal procedures (DiscFX, intradiscal biologics), for select pre-fusion evaluations where the surgeon needs confirmation of which level to target, and for refractory low-back pain when imaging is ambiguous. It is not a screening test and is not appropriate for patients with clear, non-discogenic diagnoses.
Soreness for forty-eight hours. Results inform the next step.
Expect post-procedure soreness for one to two days, sometimes longer at the tested levels. Light activity is fine; avoid heavy lifting for a week. The output of the test is the path forward: a positive result identifies the right level for definitive treatment; a negative result tells us to look elsewhere and saves you from a procedure that would not have helped.
Stop accepting the downtime.
Confirm before you commit. Schedule a consultation at any Triumph location.