The Spinal Diagnostics Research Department was established in 1998 for the purpose of furthering current knowledge on interventional spine medicine, exploring diagnostic and treatment procedures, improving the quality of treatment for patients who suffer from acute and chronic disabling pain, and developing new technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of spine disorders. Having an in-house research department allows us to conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses on-site. We diligently monitor patients' progress and improvement with regard to specific procedures.

The Research Department is comprised of over 5 faculty and staff members. These members are drawn from various areas of specialization, some of them being, Pain Medicine, Anesthesiology, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Neurology and the Neurophysiologic Sciences. Our research interests range from basic animal studies to clinical researches for developing more rational treatment approaches.

Over its six-year history, the Research Department has pursued numerous research interests, including the following:

     1. Prospective analysis of lumbar discography
     2. Animal discography studies
     3. Disc stimulation and patterns of referred pain
     4. Sacroiliac joint pain in athletes
     5. Biochemical injection for treatment of discogenic low back pain
     6. The MRI / discography relationship
     7. Lumbar degenerative disc disease
     8. Discography / IDET
     9. Nucleoplasty histology studies
     10. Percutaneous disc procedures
     11. Epidural injection
     12. Porcine discogram (annular pressure)

Current and on-going research projects include:

     1. In vivo animal nucleoplasty
     2. Comparison of intradiscal injection and IDET
     3. IDET of the cervical spine
     4. IDET in the treatment of leg pain
     5. Comparison of pathologic and normal discogram
     6. Demographic study of discogram with low back pain
     7. Pain response during discogram
     8. Intradiscal electrical stimulation during discogram
     9. Endoscopic nucleoplasty
     10. Cadaveric discometry studies
     11. Dynamic discography
     12. Outcome of rhizotomy S/P fusion
     13. Nucleoplasty outcome

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