Category: General Questions

Surgery for herniated disc in the low back is typically what’s called a microdiscectomy. It’s a minimally invasive surgery where a small incision is made in the back and that bad disc that’s pressing on the nerve is removed. Patients go home the same day.

Symptoms related to a herniated disc can range from no symptoms whatsoever to severe back and leg pain and even sometimes weakness or trouble with other areas of function. To treat those, the options start typically conservatively, such as physical therapy, medications, progress through injections and ultimately surgical intervention if none of that works.

There are different ways to classify a herniated disc. A bulging disc would be considered one of the worst forms of disc herniation. It can nevertheless still cause problems as you progress to worsening or larger disc herniations. Your worst case scenario is what’s called an extruded disc where it’s actually squirted out from its native location and those typically cause severe leg or back pain.

There are lots of different types of back pain and pain related to the back with lots of different causes. They range from arthritis instability when the spine does not move normally or moves accessibly. Obviously there’s some very rare causes of back pain and other sources of pain from the back can be things like a pinched nerve where patients have pain shooting down the leg, also known in many cases as sciatica.