[A historical approach to herniated disk].

Abstract

It is not more than sixty years ago that a relationship between rupture of an intervertebral disk and possible involvement of the spinal canal with its nervous structures had first been established. However, our knowledge of the intervertebral disk on the one hand, and of myelo- and radiculopathies on the other, is much older. Some of the steps leading to the 'discovery' of disk herniation are pointed out and illustrated.