Talk:Spinal disc herniation

Launch of new article

This article is a product of the cooperative efforts of Dematt, a chiropractor, and Fyslee, a physiotherapist.

We felt the need for this article, so we have combined two articles and then developed the article even further. The existing articles that were used were:

• Slipped disc, and
• Lumbar disc herniation

The "slipped disc" article is an article that should have never been more than a redirect, since the very expression is quite misleading. Its very existence as an article served to bolster the impression that the term represented an anatomical reality, rather than a common and misleading layman's term, based on a gross misunderstanding. Consequently this misleading article ended up being the article many proper terms were redirected to, since there was no better article! The need for a replacement was obvious.

For quite some time the "slipped disc" article has been enlarged with much good content, and the "lumbar disc herniation" article also has some good content. By combining them we hope to provide a good article that can replace them and become the proper object of Wikilinks and redirects.

We hope our efforts will be appreciated, and that the article will be positively received and further developed with time. -- Dematt and Fyslee 23:15, 28 August 2006

Research Section:

In my opinion, this section should be completely removed. This research applies to disc degeneration, and the article is about "Spinal disc herniation"; these are 2 completely different topics. If this section is deemed relevant, it should be made more clear how it is relevant. It is also only 1 research area, and hardly representative of relevant research as a whole.

Role of Cutibacterium in disc pathology

I feel the strong association of e.g. a. Vulgaris to disc herniation and perhaps lower back pain in general should be included here, as it has been widely isolated from herniated discs. 501i4n (talk) 18:45, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Please find some reliable sources that comply with WP:MEDRS. Then we can consider it. Thanks for the suggestion. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 18:49, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 13 November 2024

Spinal disc herniation → Disc herniation – WP:CONCISE, already mostly mentioned as simply "disc herniation" throughout the article, most common term out of a few others, while "spinal disc herniation" is rarest, "spinal" seems redundant here –Tobias (talk) 11:49, 13 November 2024 (UTC) — Relisting. Bobby Cohn (talk) 12:14, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose. When one searches, the more words that are included, the rarer that constellation will be found in relation to shorter constellations of words, so that comparison really has no meaning for us here. We use "spinal" to signal this is a medical topic. Imagine someone who is totally ignorant of the topic and just sees the isolated title "Disc herniation". They will have to click the link to find out it's a medical topic. That's not good. They should know, just by looking at the isolated title, that it's a medical topic. Therefore, I oppose the move. I don't see it as an improvement. It's more like a solution in search of a problem. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 18:39, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

  The term "disc herniation" is solely used in a medical context, so it’s nearly impossible to find unrelated results when searching for it and vice versa. Even if it were, adding "spinal" wouldn’t provide much additional clarity if "herniation" alone isn’t understood. Besides, most search engines display a text preview, allowing readers to see the first few words of a webpage, making it unnecessary to click the link. –Tobias (talk) 19:16, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

  You cite WP:CONCISE, but it only applies to "a person familiar with the general subject area": "The goal of concision is to balance brevity with sufficient information to identify the topic to a person familiar with the general subject area." I take a broader view. One more/less word isn't worth such a change, one that leaves those unfamiliar with the topic without a necessary bit of information. The briefer mentions in the article are allowed because we mention "spinal" in the title. That is the only place we'd save ONE word. If we remove it from the title, then we'd have to add it several places in the body. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 00:27, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

  @Valjean I have to disagree on that, the clarification that this is a spinal problem occurs directly in the lead and is not relevant to the title. And that, again, has nothing to do with the body text. This is why almost no other scientific articles on this topic include "spinal" in the title and why "spinal disc herniation" is that rarely used. –Tobias (talk) 09:30, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

  Medical sources don't need to mention some form of "spinal/spine" in the title because they will mention it in their article. The very medium, whose audience is made up of "persons familiar with the general subject area", and already being a strictly medical source, obviates the need to mention the anatomical term in the title when "a person familiar with the general subject area" will already understand the context.

Wikipedia is not an exclusively medical source, and many of our readers are not "persons familiar with the general subject area", so titles should usually indicate their basic topic area.

We need other people's input here if we are going to change the long-standing status quo. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 16:05, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Correct, and WP:CONCISE actually supports my point. I’m not sure if you fully understood what you read there, but it states that the title needs to be identifiable to someone with background knowledge about the subject area, not to someone unfamiliar with it. My request meets this criterion, everything else is a matter for the body text. –Tobias (talk) 16:29, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

Oops! Good point about "concise". I still wonder if you're being "too precise" and unnecessarily precise, so will wait for others' input. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 16:48, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

I agree, that's still a matter of perspective. –Tobias (talk) 16:54, 15 November 2024 (UTC)