Jeff Langmaid reviews research showing that most acute lumbar disc herniations resorb on their own. A meta-analysis found little difference in outcomes at 2-5 years between patients who had surgery and those who didn't, raising questions about when surgery is actually necessary.
This came out in pain physician in 2017. The actual title is Incidence of Spontaneous Resorption of Lumbar Disc Herniation. A Meta Analysis and this is an interesting topic for a variety of different reasons, not only from the conservative care space, but also from the surgical space. Because if you don't give something time to heal and you do surgery too early, that's probably not a good situation for that patient. Still, studies have found that acute lumbar disc herniations two to five years after diagnosis, there was little difference between patients who underwent surgery and those who did not. Let me say that again, you feel like you're almost in the twilight world reading this sort of thing. So studies have shown patients with acute lumbar disc herniations two to five years after that lumbar disc herniation happens. They're pretty much the same whether they have surgery or not. Well, that lists then a whole host of questions, which is, well, why have surgical intervention? Which is a really, really good question, by the way.
