When conservative management or minimally invasive spine procedures are not effective in treating lumbar radiulopathy (lumbar degenerative disc disease), the patient may require surgery.  A common spine surgery procedure is surgical decompression.  The goal of this surgery is to eliminate the compression of the spinal cord on the nerves to reduce the back pain.

 

Here is a link to a study that Dr. Rick Sasso (spine surgeon with Indiana Spine Group and I co-authored about Selective Nerve Root Injections (SNI) as a diagnostic tool prior to surgery.  The study concluded that SNI combined with MRI was as an effective tool in determining the presence of radiculopathy.