How is a herniated disc diagnosed?
Your doctor will listen to your complaint and do some physical examination with tests to confirm the source of your pain. Afterward, they may order some lab tests and imaging studies. Laboratory tests are not done routinely in all patients and may only be done before an operation as a part of a preoperative regimen to test for anemia and blood coagulation problems.
Regarding imaging studies, the most commonly performed is an MRI, which stands for magnetic resonance imaging. MRI helps detect disc herniation, unlike a traditional X-ray or CT scanning which only shows bones. MRI scanning can detect the extent of disc herniation and whether it compresses a certain nerve or causes cauda equina. In some cases, it can detect whether another condition is causing the symptom as in tumors or bony fractures -even though they are much less common than disc herniation-.