Lumbar spinal diseases causing low back and radicular pain present a major public health problem. The majority of the population suffer from sciatic pain at some time during their life. The most frequent cause of sciatic pain in younger people is intervertebral disc herniation, while in older people the most common cause of sciatic pain is the lateral recessus stenosis or stenosis of the neural foramen through which the spinal nerve emerges from the spinal canal. Various pro-inflammatory factors are involved in the pathogenesis of sciatic pain, among which the most important are interleukin 1 and the tumor necrosis factor. Since the cost of surgical treatment of patients suffering from sciatic pain is significantly high, in recent decades, there has been an increase in awareness to treat intervertebral disc herniations using minimally invasive procedures. Among these minimally invasive procedures epidural steroid injections have been shown to be the most effective, although various intradiscal procedures have been developed over the years to treat intervertebral disc herniations. Following the trends of rapid recovery and reduction of medical costs the surgical techniques in the last decade have also become less invasive causing less trauma to soft and nervous tissue. This is achieved using tubular retractors. The last cutting edge technique in spinal surgery is endoscopy. These operations are performed in local anesthesia with a minimal skin incision, minimal tissue trauma and scarring, and with the fastest postoperative recovery and reduced treatment costs.