The cauda equina nerve in the human spine is densely packed, and lumbar spinal deformity, lumbar spinal stenosis and lumbar disc stenosis all lead to compression of the cauda equina, and damage to the cauda equina often results in a high rate of disability. Can it be detected and treated earlier? Yesterday, the reporter learned from Shanghai Second Military Medical University Changzheng Hospital that the hospital’s research results have formed a clinical diagnosis and treatment optimization model to greatly reduce its incidence, with a total efficiency of 93%. Cauda equina syndrome is a more serious complication for patients with lumbar spine diseases. The symptoms are mild in the early stage, but once they occur, there are multiple symptoms at the same time, and patients often suffer from delayed consultation and diagnosis, which greatly affects the treatment effect and has a very high disability rate. The orthopedic department of Long March Hospital, Associate Professor Shi Jiangang, said that the cauda equina nerve has a very special anatomical location and is a bridge between the spinal cord and peripheral nerves. Once the cauda equina nerve is compressed and injured, a vicious cycle is easily formed, making it difficult to repair the related nerves and functions and causing permanent functional damage. Faced with this worldwide problem, a research team led by Shi Jiangang, under the guidance of Prof. Yuan Wen and Prof. Jia Lianshun, directors of the Department of Orthopedics, has conducted a series of innovative researches in the basic and clinical fields of cauda equina nerve damage since the 1990s. Starting from the pathogenesis, the team innovatively proposed a staging method based on “symptoms and signs”, which clarified the starting point of the patient’s pathogenesis before the nerve necrosis. By grasping this “point in time” of onset, we can accurately measure the “pre-clinical and early clinical stages” and achieve “early” diagnosis and treatment, which greatly reduces the incidence of the disease. The research results have resulted in a series of clinical diagnosis and treatment optimization models, such as “early diagnosis, early treatment, optimal timing of surgery, acute comprehensive treatment, and post-operative antioxidant treatment”, which have greatly reduced the incidence of the disease, with a total efficiency of 93%. Meanwhile, the research results have been applied in 14 large and medium-sized hospitals across China.