Patient guides
Clear, evidence based guides written by a neurosurgeon. Choose a section to get started.
🎧 Guides you can listen to
Prefer to listen? These guides and episodes have an audio version, narrated in Mr Sadek’s voice using AI voice technology.
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Episode 3: Microdiscectomy or Injection for Sciatica? The NERVES Trial
The UK NERVES trial compared surgery with a nerve root injection for sciatica. Here is what it found, explained in plain English.
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Episode 2: Surgery or Waiting for a Slipped Disc? The SPORT Trial
What the large SPORT trial found when it compared surgery with non-surgical care for a slipped disc, and what it means for you.
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Episode 1: Spine Research Roundup, 6 October 2026
Exercise doses for back pain, when to operate on a slipped disc, what helps new back pain, recovery after neck surgery, and back braces.
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MRI Scans of the Spine: What to Expect
When a spinal MRI scan helps, when it does not, how to prepare, what happens in the scanner and how to make sense of your report.
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Lumbar Spinal Fusion (TLIF and ALIF)
How lumbar interbody fusion works, how the back (TLIF) and front (ALIF) approaches differ, recovery, and the risks of each.
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Lumbar Spinal Stenosis
Narrowing of the lower spinal canal can cause leg pain on walking. Symptoms, treatment options and the risks and benefits of decompression.
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Lumbar Discectomy and Decompression Surgery
What discectomy and decompression involve, who they help, the expected benefits, recovery, and the risks, with figures from the British Association of Spine Surgeons.
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Neck Disc Prolapse and Arm Pain (Cervical Radiculopathy)
Why a trapped nerve in the neck causes arm pain, how often it settles on its own, and what surgery involves if it does not.
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Cervical Stenosis and Myelopathy
When narrowing in the neck squeezes the spinal cord: the warning signs, why early assessment matters, and what surgery can achieve.
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Cauda Equina Syndrome
A rare spinal emergency affecting the nerves to the legs, bladder and bowel. The warning signs, why speed matters, and what surgery involves.
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Acute Back Pain
Sudden low back pain is very common and usually settles. How to ease it, why staying active helps, and which warning signs need a doctor.
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Slipped Disc (Lumbar Disc Prolapse)
What a slipped disc really is, how it usually recovers, and when surgery is considered.
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Nerve Root Injections: What to Expect
A step-by-step guide to spinal nerve root injections, including the benefits and risks.
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Sciatica: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
Why sciatica happens, what helps, and the warning signs that need urgent attention.
