Lumbar Disc Disease

Abstract

Summary: This article provides a review of lumbar disc disease and its management. A brief history of lumbar disc disease is given followed by a summary of the anatomy, clinical considerations and radiologic investigation of this problem. Treatment options including medical management, chemonucleolysis, percutaneous discectomy, and microdiscectomy are discussed in addition to standard laminectomy and approaches to the far lateral disc herniation. Special problems such as intradural disc herniation, anatomic root variants and Tarlov's cysts are also addressed.