Q: What are the causes of herniated discs? External causes such as long-term excessive weight bearing and trauma are a major factor in disc herniation, but as the population ages, every part of our body has an aging process, including the intervertebral discs, which become progressively less resilient and can cause disc rupture and herniation with an activity that was not very strenuous. Disc herniation caused by aging discs can already account for 2/3 of elderly people over 60 years old, and with the aging of the population, the problem has become more prominent. Q: What bad posture can cause lumbar disc herniation? Almost half of our body weight is supported by the spine, which is made up of one vertebrae, and the vertebrae and vertebrae are connected by intervertebral discs. For example, if we want to move something, we lean forward to do so, and the pressure on the anterior part of the disc is several times greater than the normal pressure, so the disc is squeezed backwards. Q: Is spinal endoscopic surgery more suitable for younger or older people? It should be said that this minimally invasive endoscopic surgery is suitable for everyone, and anyone who can do it this way should not go for open surgery. And it is not up to you to take the initiative or not, to like it or not, because this is a trend, no one likes to do open surgery. Traditional open surgery is a very big surgery, bleeding about 200ml, after the surgery you have to stay in the hospital for a week or two weeks, the doctor will give a home rest for 3 months or six months of sick leave. But this (endoscopic surgery) can be done in two hours and then you can move freely. Of course, we do not encourage too much activity immediately, such as lifting heavy objects. Q: What is the prognosis of minimally invasive endoscopic surgery compared to traditional surgery? It is much less traumatic than open surgery, the recovery is much faster, and the results are not worse than open surgery at all. Q: Can this surgery (endoscopic surgery) be done for this kind of herniation between multiple vertebrae at the same time? I had a procedure last Thursday that was done on two segments at the same time. In young people, disc herniation is often a single segment, but in older people, it’s like a tire that has been running for a long time and is worn thin, so when it leaks, the front wheel may also leak and the back wheel may also leak, so he may have problems with multiple segments. However, multi-stage herniation does not always cause symptoms. A herniated disc will only have symptoms if it compresses the nerves, so we must determine the responsible disc based on clinical symptoms. If there are two segments that are both associated with painful symptoms, you can consider doing both segments at the same time. However, we prefer to do one segment at a time, safety first, especially in older patients, who should recover and recover before doing it. If you are in better health, you can do both segments in one surgery, and each patient should be treated individually. Q: Will intervertebral foraminoscopic surgery affect the stability of the spine? This is a more specialized question. Another great advantage of this procedure over traditional surgery is that it does not affect the stability of the spine. Traditional surgery removes a large portion of the disc, which can destabilize the spine and, over time, narrow the intervertebral space or cause the spine to turn sideways. Endoscopic surgery removes a very small portion of the disc, so this procedure does not affect the stability of the spine.