title: Lumbar disc herniation in eight siblings with a positive family history for disc disease.
abstract: Lumbar disc herniation has been observed by the author in many members of a large family, with the maximum incidence in males of the third generation, where 8 siblings were similarly affected and 6 underwent operation, mostly in their third decade of life. A number of patients in the same family suffered from chronic low back pain. In the majority of cases environmental factors apparently do not seem to play a significant role in the development of the disease. The author believes that a genetic predisposition to early disc degeneration can be invoked to explain so large an aggregation of patients suffering from lumbar disc disorders.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology, University of Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Scapinelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000235:genetics* / Q000601:surgery; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae; D008297:Male; D010375:Pedigree