On 23 December 1908, the German surgeon Fedor Krause (1857 - 1937), who worked at the Augusta Hospital in Berlin together with the German neurologist Heinrich 0. Oppenheim (1858 -1919), was the first to operate on a disc prolapse in a patient who had suffered from severe sciatic pain for several years and had developed an acute cauda equina syndrome 1901.

The operation consisted of: • laminectomy L2-L4 • splitting the Dura • mobilizing the cauda equina by a retractor • exploring the operation field • removing a small tumor mass after the operation, the patient felt much better and the neurological problems disappeared. Following the theory of Luschka, Krause and Oppenheim supposed that this fibrocartilage mass was an enchondroma.