Why should I undergo surgery for a herniated lumbar disc when others do fine with conservative treatment? This is a question that many patients often ask me. In fact, for most patients with herniated discs, I don’t recommend surgery right away! When will your doctor recommend surgery and why do you need it? 1.Conservative treatment, the effect is not good, the pain is severe, seriously affect the quality of life, need surgery. As the most important part of conservative treatment is rest, but modern people need to resume work, normal life, it is impossible to rest endlessly. Repeated episodes of the disease while affecting life and work is a reason for patients to undergo surgery. 2. The lumbar disc herniation is severe and has caused damage to the nerves, requiring surgery. If the nerve compression is not lifted, the nerve damage may continue to worsen or may not recover, which is one of the main reasons why most patients undergo treatment. 3. Significant narrowing of the lumbar spinal canal. Due to the significant narrowing of the spinal canal, this type of patient has poor tolerance for disc compression, often experiencing recurring episodes of the condition, and even easily aggravating the condition. I found that most of the patients who need surgical treatment are combined with significant spinal stenosis. Spinal stenosis may be congenital development, or it may be caused by degeneration and aging, osteophytes, and thickening of ligaments. 4, lumbar hyperextension and hyperflexion lateral radiographs suggest that the lumbar vertebral segments are significantly unstable (loose), this type, simple conservative treatment is likely to be unable to relieve the symptoms. Because the lumbar spine is obviously loose and unstable, the range of motion between the two vertebral segments is too large, and the abnormal stress on the intervertebral discs is much larger than normal, this type of disease will mostly have a tendency to become more and more serious, which may lead to increased disc protrusion and more and more serious nerve compression. At the same time, loose instability of the lumbar spine itself may cause low back pain. In our experience, a large percentage of patients undergoing surgical treatment have this problem. In fact, I understand very well the concerns of many patients. However, the same lumbar disc herniation, but the condition is different, and the adapted treatment methods are also different (there are also many treatment methods for lumbar disc herniation). Therefore, it is recommended that patients in determining the treatment program, you should consult more professional physician’s advice, so as not to get the wrong key to open the door, do useless work, delay the treatment time.