Lumbar disc herniation in eight siblings with a positive family history for disc disease.

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.