[The history and principle of spinal manipulation in the treatment of lumbar intervertebral disc herniation].

It is generally agreed that spinal manipulation has been applied into the treatment of lumbar intervertebral disc herniation (LDH) for thousands of years according to historical reviews of the paper. The balance restore of spinal column had been always the main aim of spinal manipulation during the time. The situation has been changed after LDH was discovered pathomechanically about 70 years ago and the protruded nucleus pulposus has attracted the attention of whole world ever since and surgery become the major choice for LDH patients. Nevertheless, some latest reports of clinical observation in past decades explored more and more solid evidences to prove that most of the patients need no surgery at all and would be cured by conservative therapy without any changes of protruded nucleus pulposus at involved segment. The modern management of LDH suggests that we should not only pay attention to the protruded disk but also to the biomechanical balance of spinal column again as we had for thousands of years,which is concluded from the reviews of previous reports and history of LDH recognition in the paper. The only thing we should care more about is how to make full use of our modern knowledge to adjust our view of observation and management in clinical practice of spinal manipulation and to make a further understanding of the pathomechanics of LDH.