The Lumbar Disk Syndrome and Its Operative Treatment

Abstract

In terms of man-hours of lost productivity, the lumbar disk syndrome remains as one of man's more disabling disorders. Improved diagnostic and surgical technics permit a more optimistic attitude toward treatment. The basic decision in treatment is whether to operate. At the Mayo Clinic the percentage of patients in whom grafting is combined with disk excision has risen gradually and is now almost 50 percent.