Intervertebral Disk Diseases

Contents

1. Introduction
2. History and terminology
   • History
   • Terminology
   • Anatomy and pathology
   • Clinical syndromes
3. Epidemiology
   • Lifetime prevalence
   • Point and annual prevalence
   • Localization and frequency
   • International figures
4. General anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics
   • Development of the intervertebral disk
   • Anatomy
   • Fine structure and biochemistry
   • Biomechanics
   • The disk and the intervertebral joints
   • Therapeutic approaches
5. Non-degenerative disk diseases
   • Developmental disturbances
   • Inflammatory and infectious disorders
   • Tumors
   • Involvement of the intervertebral disks by systemic illness
6. Diskosis
   • Definition
   • Classification
   • Etiology
   • Pathogenesis
   • Biochemical changes of aging
   • The biomechanical basis of disk tissue displacement
   • Effects on the osmotic system
   • Instability of the motion segment
   • Prediscotic deformities
7. Traumatology
   • Etiologies and types of spinal injury, and the role of preexisting degenerative changes
   • Sprains of the motion segment
   • Isolated traumatic disk rupture
   • Vertebral body fracture with injury of the intervertebral disk
8. Pain: its pathogenesis and chronification
   • Local and radiating pain
   • Nerve supply of the spine
   • The foramino-articular region
   • Discogenic pain
   • Spine deformities without pain
   • Pain arising from the posterior longitudinal ligament
   • Radicular pain
   • Intervertebral joint pain (facet syndrome, pseudoradicular syndrome)
   • Muscle pain
   • Combined types of pain
   • Nociception and chronification
   • Chronification
   • Pharmacological pain therapy
9. Cervical syndrome
   • Definition and prevalence
   • Special anatomy and physiology of the cervical motion segments
   • Biomechanics
   • Special pathoanatomy and pathophysiology
   • Clinical features of cervical syndromes
   • General differential diagnosis
   • Classification of cervical syndromes
   • Treatment of cervical syndromes
   • Special patient exercises, rehabilitation, and back school
   • Treatment planning
10. Thoracic syndrome
    • Definition and prevalence
    • Special anatomy, biomechanics, and pathoanatomy of the thoracic motion segments
    • Classification
    • Clinical features of thoracic disk prolapse
    • Intercostal neuralgia
    • Differential diagnosis
    • Treatment
11. Lumbar syndrome
    • Definition and prevalence
    • Special anatomy of the lumbar motion segments
    • Special biomechanics of the lumbar spine, by H. J. Wilke
    • Special pathological anatomy and pathophysiology
    • Clinical features of lumbar syndromes
    • Clinical syndromes
    • The treatment of lumbar syndromes
12. Spontaneous course
    • L5/S1 case illustration: prolapse with infradiscal extension and spontaneous resorption
    • L4/5 case illustration: spontaneous resorption of an infradiscal L4/5 disk prolapse
13. The spine and the mind
    • Psychosomatic processes
    • Mind-body interactions as described in the literature
    • The spine as a projective field for mental disturbances (psychosomatic changes)
    • The effect of disk disease on the mind (somatopsychic changes)
    • The deliberate instrumentalization of disk disease
    • Psychotherapy, relaxation techniques
14. Back school
    • The biomechanical principles of back school
15. Exercise in a pain-free range of motion (EPFRM)
    • Exercise and nociception
    • Which exercises are suitable?
    • EPFRM units
16. Sports
    • Introduction, literature
    • Sports and the cervical spine
    • Sports and the lumbar spine
    • Sporting activities that are good and bad for the intervertebral disks