Study of lumbar disc pathology among a group of dockworkers

Low back disorders pose a serious health problem among workers engaged in heavy manual lifting and carrying. In order to determine the extent to which this type of activity may contribute to the prevalence and pattern of lumbar disc degeneration, a group of dockworkers doing heavy lifting and carrying and a control group of clerks were compared. The prevalence of disc changes was higher among the dockworkers at all disc levels studied (T12-L5). No significant differences in pattern of distribution of affected discs were demonstrated. A higher prevalence of anterior and posterior disc changes, occurring more in combination than singly, was observed in the dockworkers. There was a significant excess of such combined changes in the T12, L4 and L5 discs among the dockworkers, compared with only L5 involvement in the controls.