[The importance of the intervertebral disk in the differential diagnosis of traumatic, inflammatory and congenital spondylopathies (author's transl)].

A review of the pathology of the intervertebral disk from the differential diagnostic angle could be neither systematic nor at all comprehensive, and had to be necessarily selective. The total relevant knowledge, without being restricted to differential diagnosis, is contained in far more than 5,000 individual publications. I hope that the few facts presented here will convey an idea of the dimensions, and that the selection will be found interesting.