Pain Low in the Back and "Sciatica"

In previously published papers,¹attention was drawn to the rôle of the intervertebral disks in causing intractable "sciatic" radiation of pain from pressure of herniated disk tissue on one or more roots of the cauda equina in the lower lumbar region. At first this syndrome was thought to be rare, but investigation has revealed that a considerable number of cases previously classified as sacro-iliac or lumbosacral strain were really rupture of an intervertebral disk. This diagnosis should be considered in the study of every case of strain low in the back and "sciatica." This paper is a joint effort to correlate the information obtained from a study of fifty-eight patients with proved rupture of an intervertebral disk in the lumbar region, operated on at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1927 to June 1937. A detailed historical review of the literature on the intervertebral disk is beyond the scope of