Intervertebral disc disorder

A intervertebral disc disorder is a condition that involves deterioration, herniation, or other dysfunction of an intervertebral disc.

As people age, the nucleus pulposus begins to dehydrate, which limits its ability to transfer and distribute loads between the vertebrae. These loads are instead transferred non-uniformly through the anulus fibrosus, which undergoes progressive, structural deterioration. While this may not cause pain in some people, in others one or both of these may cause chronic pain.