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A herniated disk can affect how you're able to perform everyday tasks and can cause severe pain that influences most everything you do. You and your doctor will make decisions about how to best treat your herniated disk, sometimes called ruptured disk or slipped disk. No single treatment choice is right for everyone. Your decisions will be based on a number of factors, including the nature of your condition, the degree to which it's affecting your lifestyle and the level of pain you're experiencing.
Think of your doctor and you as partners in making decisions about how to treat your herniated disk. You'll want to carefully consider all your options and the risks and benefits of each in relation to your lifestyle and what's important to you. The information in this decision guide is intended to help you understand the various treatment options and help decide which treatment is best for you.
You can see and hear directly from people who made different treatment choices, as well as from the director of the Mayo Clinic Spine Center, Rochester, Minn. This guide also frames key questions to help you in this important decision-making process.
This guide is designed for people with a herniated lumbar disk, not a herniated cervical disk. Lumbar disk herniation occurs in the lower (lumbar) region of the spine and occurs more frequently than neck (cervical) herniation. Though some diagnosis techniques and treatments for herniated cervical disks are similar to those for lumbar disks, this guide is designed for people with herniated lumbar disks.
Take about 30 minutes or more to go through this information in sequence by following the links at the left or at the bottom of each page. This provides proper context and helps you understand more about herniated disks, your treatment options, why other people made the choices they did, and the pros and cons to consider in making your decision.
March 09, 2004
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