I have never heard of a discogram before today although I have had a couple of MRI's and several x-rays over the years I have had back pain and been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. I've been reading several recent posts here and have seen this test referred to. However, when I "googled" it, the website I looked at said it is a rarely used test and can be painful and that doctors prefer to first use non-invasive tests like MRI's.

My question is, is this test typical before surgery to get as much detail about the problem as possible? Or can they go by MRI results?

Also, if an MRI image is over a couple of years old, would they typically order a new one before surgery? Seems reasonable...