In outpatient clinics, patients with lumbar disc herniation often ask: “Can I not have surgery?” “Under what circumstances do I have to have surgery?” For patients who have a herniated disc for the first time, they should be treated conservatively with strict bed rest for 2-3 months, and surgery can be considered for those whose low back pain with radiating pain in the lower extremities is still not relieved. The vast majority of patients fail to take “strict bed rest” when they first become ill. Strict bed rest means eating, drinking, shitting and spreading all in bed. Some patients do not spend enough time in bed and get up again when they have a little remission, so their condition gets better and worse, delaying the time for conservative treatment. In patients who have herniated disc for the first time, those with severe radiological pain and those with imaging suggestive of huge disc prolapse should consider early surgery, the effect of conservative treatment in this case will not be ideal and will only increase the patient’s pain. Those with incontinence due to lumbar disc herniation should be operated on urgently. In such cases, even if surgery is performed in time, the possibility of restoring the function of urine and stool after surgery is extremely slim. Therefore, for those with large herniated discs and heavy compression of the cauda equina nerve, surgery should also be performed as early as possible.