The first surgeons' conference I attended was the annual meeting of The American Academy of Minimally Invasive Spinal Medicine and Surgery (AAMISMS) in 2002, hosted by Tony Yeung. I was taken by the deference that was paid Dr. Richard Derby. He was obviously a heavy hitter. It was a pleasure to meet him and to thank him for his work that had helped me so much. I don't know the true history of discography, but in my experience he is referred to as the father of modern discography. He's been a wonderful resource for me through the years. I've had many clients travel across the country to do diagnostics with him.
I'll be soliciting input from several doctors that I know who do discography ( I have a few clients who are pain management doctors!) My first contact about this subject was with Dr. Derby. He graciously sent me an article that he's written that is essentially a rebuttal to the Carragee study. This is hot off the presses. I don't believe it's been published yet.
I'll write more about both of these articles later, but I don't want to introduce their arguments before introducing their papers.
Here is Dr. Derby's article. I look forward to the discussion that follows!
Mark