How bad is this test? Needles between discs?

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manchak99

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My dad has decided to go with the fusion surgery-not until April (could be earlier but that's the latest date and info we have).
Prior to this, he neeRAB to go thru some type of test that they keep him semi sedated but awake enough so that he can tell them HOW much pain it causes him when they stick needles between his discs.
What is this called and how bad is it? the dr's warned him that he will have bad headaches for about 3 days afterwarRAB.
What happens if they can't get the needles in? They did say that was a possibility since his back is pretty messed up.
He has spinal stenosis and some herniated discs (not sure location).
Any info on this test would be appreciated..he has it in the end of Sept.
Thanks.
 
The test you are referring to is called a discogram. You can search for this to find previous posts relating to it.

I had the test and it wasn't too bad for me, but everyone's experience is different. There definitely is pain if they inject a bad disc (they pressurize the inside of the disc with a dye that shows up on live x-ray), but the pain is very short-lived.

I have never heard of someone having a headache from this procedure for several days after. You can get a spinal headache from a myelogram from a spinal fluid leak (I definitely had this!), but I've not heard of it from a discogram. Perhaps they are just saying it is a possibility.

I would make sure that the procedure is being performed by a doctor or radiologist that has many years of experience doing discograms. This procedure required great technical expertise, and you don't want a new doctor learning how to do this on your father.

One thing I can say for discograms it that they are able to show what the problem is in many cases like no other test can do. Discograms are able to show what the discs look like internally, whether they are a pain source, and if and what kind of damage there is. It definitely showed what my problem was (a badly torn disc) when other tests didn't show significant problems. The result of the discogram for me was a fusion surgery. Also, I would not recommend that anyone have a fusion without first having a discogram as this test can often show which discs have problems and which ones are fine, and these findings do not always match MRI's or other tests. This will help make sure only the discs that are bad are being fused, while also making sure that a bad disc at another level doesn't get missed which can lead to a future surgery.

Warm wishes!
 
I had a Discogram and never had saddle pain till then, It was not that painfull originally but wow the lasting effects...
 
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