Surgical Treatment of Low Back Pain With Sciatic Radiation

ALTHOUGH there are already many articles on the subject of low back pain with sciatic radiation, we feel that our experiences may be worth recounting because (1) from the beginning such treatment has been a joint project of the orthopedic and neurosurgical divisions of this hospital and (2) because from it we have developed certain concepts that seem a little different from those commonly expressed in most of the other reports. We wish to place emphasis upon three main points which we intend to make in this report. The first is that disturbances of the intervertebral disks may be but a part of a more general dysfunction involving the vertebral and related structures. We feel that these lesions which do not show frank pathologic changes in the disks should receive greater emphasis than they have in the past. The second is that we recommend uncapping of the nerves (especially