Muscle weakness or paresis is a common symptom in patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH). Removal of herniated disc fragments (microdiscectomy) is often carried out for patients with paresis. However, controversy exists about the necessity and timing of surgery for LDH-induced paresis. FinDisc-Paresis will be the first randomised placebo-controlled trial of microdiscectomy for patients with LDH-induced muscle weakness. Eligible patients will be recruited and randomised to either microdiscectomy or placebo-surgery. The placebo intervention will closely resemble microdiscectomy but exclude procedures to alleviate the compression over the nerve root (i.e., removal of the herniated disc material and other tissues potentially compressing the nerve root) Participants, caregivers, and researchers will be blinded to treatment allocation over the entire course of the trial. The findings of this study will provide high certainty evidence for the efficacy of microdiscectomy.

2023

2027