Part I: Essentials in Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- We\'ve Been Standing up for 10 Million Years.- A Historical Overview of Sciatica.- Lumbar Intervertebral Disk Injury, Herniation, and Degeneration.- Advances in Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease Pathophysiology Comprehension.- Epidemiology of Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Genetics of Lumbar Disk Degeneration.- Part II: Imaging.- Imaging of Degenerative Disk Disease.- Discography.- Modic Changes and Symptomatic Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease. Is There Any Correlation?- Degenerative Marrow Changes: Natural History Biomechanics in Relation to Symptoms.- Part III: General Important Aspects When Treating Symptomatic Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Psychosocial Aspects and Work-related Issues Regarding Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Legal Aspects in the Surgical Treatment of Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Cost-Effective Spinal Surgery: Reality or Oxymoron?- Outcome Measures for Spinal Surgery.- Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease: Workup and Conservative Treatment.- Facet Joint Pain: Presentation and Treatment. Is It a Myth?- Part IV: Lumbar Disk Herniations.- Advanced Scientific Considerations for Surgery in Patients with Lumbar Disk Herniation.- Surgery for Lumbar Disk Herniations.- Lumbar Disk Revision Surgery.- Part V: Surgical Treatment of Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease: Doubts, Decisions, and Techniques.- The Decision to Operate: Advanced Concepts.- To Fuse or Not to Fuse: That\'s the Question.- Biomechanics of the Lumbar Degenerative Intervertebral Disk.- Adjacent Segment Disease: Natural History of Lumbar Degeneration or Consequence of Fusion?- How to Obtain the Best Lumbar Lordosis.- Bone Substitutes.-Techniques for the Osteoporotic Spine That Needs Fusion.- The Choice of TLIF for Lumbar Interbody Fusion.- Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF).- Interbody Fusion through the Transpsoas Approach.- Oblique Lumbar Interbody Fusion.- Instrumented PLIF in Lumbar Degenerative Spine: Principles, Indications, Technical Aspects, Results, Complications, and Pitfalls.- Part VI: Minimally Invasive Techniques.- Degenerative Disk Disease: Stages of Degeneration, Low Back Pain, and Insights on Intradiscal Therapies.- Lumbar Spine Injections: An Evidence-Based Review.- Endoscopic Procedures for the Lumbar Spine: a Comprehensive View.-Minimally Invasive Lumbar Disk Herniation Surgery with Tubular Retractors: Indications and Technical Aspects.- Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF): Indications and Techniques.- Minimally Invasive Operation for Lumbar Fusion, Canal Stenosis, Degenerative Scoliosis, and Spondylolisthesis. Is It Possible?.- Spine Injections for Persistent Lumbar and Radicular Pain after Lumbar Spine Surgery.- Cell Transplantation for Lumbar Spine Degenerative Disk Disease.- Spinal Robotics: Present Indications and Trends.- Part VII: Nonfusion Technologies.- Disk Arthoplasty: A 30-Year History.- Biomechanics of Lumbar Disk Arthroplasty.- Pedicle Screw-Based Dynamic Stabilization Devices in the Lumbar Spine: Biomechanical Concepts, Technologies, Classification, and Clinical Results.- A Word from the Inventor of Intervertebral Dynamic Fixation: on Interspinous Devices.- Interspinous Process Fixation for Motion Preservation.- Part VIII: DDD and Spine Deformity and Sagittal Balance.- Degenerative Scoliosis: Surgical Treatment.- The Importance of Sagittal Balance for the Treatment of Lumbar Degenerative Disk Disease.- Compensatory Mechanisms Contributing to the Maintenance of Sagittal Balance in Degenerative Diseases of the Lumbar Spine.- Posterior Impaction Osteotomy for Correction of Sagittal Imbalance in Iatrogenic Flat Back: Surgical Technique.- Part IX: Lessons from a Life.- Rational Evaluation and Management of the Patient with Spinal Pain.- Lessions Learned from a Life.- Lessons from 35 Years in the Trenches.- History of Lumbar Endoscopic Spinal Surgery and the Intradiscal Therapies.- The Importance of a Registry in Spinal Surger