I have been told repeatedly that surgery is almost never done because of an MRI but rather symptoms in combination with imaging. It seems logical to base a decision about such a major elective surgery on evidence based research. I keep searching for that and as of yet have not been able to find it. Of course, everyone is different and no surgeon can promise a particular result but I am not clear as to why I cannot find consistent clear statistics based on high quality research. I believe there is an indication that back surgery for severe leg pain can be very effective but that’s about it. A lot of the higher quality international research seems to suggest fusions are generally not more effective for the lumbar spine then decompression without fusion and that the stats for instability following surgery is similar after a few years regardless of the procedure.
My husband is a researcher and said the overview i posted of available research was very thorough.