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25 years
At 25yrs got diagnosed with a large right dorso-lateral extruding disc L5-S1 impinging on right anterior dural sac and S1 nerve root in the neural foramen. Is surgery avoidable? Any alternatives?
Nov 19, 2014

Dr. Zakia Dimassi Pediatrics
If the symptoms of the disc herniation show improvement over the initial three months period after the onset of symptoms, and progress to more and more improvement, then a surgical intervention is most likely not required. If, however, the patient's symptoms fail to respond to conservative (non-surgical) treatment, including physiotherapy, medications, injections, bracing and others, and radicular pain (the low back pain that travels down the thigh, leg, and is elicited upon stepping on the toes on the affected side) persists, then discectomy becomes unavoidable. This procedure aims to remove the herniation in order to release the compression and thus relieve from inflammation and break the pain cycle.
It is worthy of noting that discectomy is most effective when performed on a herniation whose size is no less than 8 mm; the success rate is significantly reduced if the size of the herniation is less than 5 mm.
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