[Neuroradiographic diagnosis of degenerative disk disease--the Dusseldorf Diagnostic Disk program. II. Reproduction of pain caused by diskography].

Pain reproduction after increasing pressure via an intradiscal injection was tested in three groups of patients, as a function of the stage of degeneration, the height of the disk space, and degenerative reactions of the upper plate. The purpose of the pain reproduction test is to classify pain due to disk pathology according to segments. The more advance the degeneration of the disk, the more accurate the pain reproduction. However, freedom from pain cannot always be demonstrated even in healthy subjects. While similar results are found with increasing thinning of the disks, these tests do not correlate with the upper plate reactions. The importance of this approach as compared to other imaging methods lies in the fact that it enables algogenic degenerative disk changes to be distinguished more clearly from those which are subclinical. However, the pain reproduction test is only one element in segmental classification as far as surgical treatment of pseudoradicular disk-related pathology is concerned.