Lumbar spinal fusion surgery is designed to stop the motion at a painful vertebral segment, which in turn should decrease pain generated from the joint.

There are many approaches to lumbar spinal fusion surgery, and all involve the following process:
- Adding bone graft to a segment of the spine
- Set up a biological response that causes the bone graft to grow between the two vertebral elements to create a bone fusion
- The boney fusion - which results in one fixed bone replacing a mobile joint - stops the motion at that joint segment
A spine fusion surgery involves using bone graft to cause two vertebral bodies to grow together into one long bone. Bone graft can be taken from the patient's hip (autograft bone) during the spine fusion surgery, harvested from cadaver bone (allograft bone), or manufactured (synthetic bone graft substitute).