You may want to have a say in this decision, or you may simply want to follow your doctor's recommendation. Either way, this information will help you understand what your choices are so that you can talk to your doctor about them.
Your options
Key points to remember
Your options
- Have spine surgery for your herniated disc now.
- Don't have surgery now. Try things like a change in the way you do your activities, medicines to manage pain, exercise, physical therapy, or steroid injections instead.
Key points to remember
- A herniated disc in the lower back is a common cause of back and leg pain. For most people, symptoms get better over time, with or without treatment.
- Many people are able to manage their symptoms with things like changes in the way they do their activities, medicines to manage pain, exercise, physical therapy, or steroid injections. If one of these things doesn't work, you can try something else or combine some of them.
- Surgery may relieve your pain faster than nonsurgical treatments. For symptoms that have lasted at least 6 weeks and that make it hard to do your normal activities, surgery is an option when other treatments haven't helped.
- Over the long term, surgery and nonsurgical treatments work about the same to reduce pain and other symptoms.
- Back surgery has some risks, including infection, nerve damage, and the chance that the surgery won't relieve your symptoms. And even if you get better with surgery, there is a chance that you may get new symptoms in the future.
- If you don't choose surgery now, you can change your mind later if your symptoms haven't gotten better or have gotten worse even with other treatments.