• Daniel Franco, Aria Mahtabfar, Kevin Hines, Victor Sabourin, Anthony Stefanelli, and James Harrop.
• Department of Neurological Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, 909 Walnut Street, Clinical Office Building, 2nd floor, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, USA. Daniel.Franco@jefferson.edu.
• Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2020 Aug 17; 24 (10): 58.

Purpose Of ReviewChronic low back pain (CLBP) is a major cause of disability in the USA, and it affects approximately 1 in 4 Americans. CLBP patients are commonly referred to or seek out neurosurgical evaluations and opinions for treatment and management.Recent FindingsLiterature shows that only a minority of patients with CLBP may benefit from a surgical procedure. These patients that present to clinic often have been ailing for a considerable amount of time and are eager for effective treatment to alleviate pain. However, determining if a patient with CLBP is a surgical candidate is predicated upon having no success of pain relief with non-operative management. Patients with CLBP require thorough and adequate imaging, clinical exam, and diagnostic evaluation. When adequate non-operative management was provided, and proven fruitless, the patient may be considered an operative candidate. In this manuscript, a framework is presented for workup and evaluation of patients with CLBP.

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