Correlation between Pathological Findings of Lumbar Disc Annuius Fibrosus and Low Back Pain

Objective To explore the relationship between pathomorphologic variation in lumbar intervertebral disc posterior annulus fibrosus and low back pain of lumbar disc degeneration diseases.Methods 132 discs posterior annulus fibrosus were obtained in the surgery and stained with HE for pathomorphologic examination,then compared with the normal discs obtained from fresh young cadavers(two hours after death).Results Pathomorphologic examination indicated that the number of collagenous fibrocytes in the patients with low back pain was less,the arrangement much more irregular and the thickness of annulus fibrosus thinner than the normal ones.Furthermore,pathological findings in patients with low back pain revelaed three characteristics in fibrosus annulus: a)capillary vessels with or without red cells appeared through annulus fibrosus,which were surrounded by lymphocytes,and the collagenous fibrocytes hyperplased measurably;b)collagenous fibrocytes arranged irregularlly,and clustered into a lumping structure;c)degenerative and proliferative chondrocyte-like cells existed side by side inserted in fibrosus annulus;d)without such three charcteristics.There was statistically significant difference between the back pain and the leg pain groups with χ~2 test.Conclusion Inflammation reaction in discs posterior annulus fibrosus is one of the most important pathological findings for lumbar disc degeneration diseases.It maybe the important reason of low back and leg pain.