Intervertebral disc diseases are the leading cause of lower back pain and disability. With an aging population, there is a proportional increase in the prevalence of intervertebral disc diseases.

Degenerative disc disease patients typically present with mechanical lower back pain, which is worse on forward flexion and when carrying heavy load. The pain is relieved with rest and lying supine with calves supported on a pillow. Advanced degenerative disc disease can present with changes in the spine, such as intervertebral disc bulge, disc herniation, facet hypertrophy, and thickening of the ligamentum flavum, which in turn can lead to spinal stenosis and neural compression. The presentation of symptomatic spinal stenosis is neurogenic claudication where the patient presents with radicular pain, which is distance and time limited, and the pain is relieved by sitting or flexing the hip and knee at rest as these actions widen the spinal canal and relieve the compression on the neural elements. Disc herniation presents with radicular pain that radiates from the buttock in a dermatomal distribution down one or both legs.

Conservative therapy is clinically recommended mainly to alleviating pain and disability, improve the physical well-being of the patient and provides a platform for adaptation of the body while the inflammatory phase of disc herniation to subside.