In the 1930s, Mixter and Barr reported their results with laminectomy and discectomy, setting forth the concept that radicular pain is associated with disc herniation. Since then, investigators have attempted to findalternatives to laminectomy and discectomy to enhance operative efficacy and decrease postoperative complications such as destabilizing and scarring the spinal canal. The trend has been toward minimizing the invasiveness of procedures that currently includes microdiscectomy and percutaneous procedures.