LAUSR

Any investigation for the surgical assessment of spinal pain should enable the accurate localization of the source of pain and aid in potential surgical planning. In the setting of suspected discogenic neck and back pain, it is crucial to correctly identify the pain-generating disk or disks. In recent years, the development of high-quality, less-invasive imaging techniques has resulted in concerns as regards the appropriateness of an invasive procedure, such as discography, as the gold standard diagnostic tool for the surgical assessment of degenerative disk disease. This article will briefly argue, first, why discography should remain the gold-standard investigation, and, second, why single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) should supplant it.