Yes, It is a proceedure to see if surgery is possible. I also found out that there are more things that can be done with this proceedure. It can also be a minimally invasive kind of sugery. If he is concerned at all of the verterbre above and below your damaged sites, I would not do the surgery. Your spine would have to be strong enough to hold the hardware. I think that is what he wants to do this for. Look up Endoscopic Epiduroplasty as well. It mentions the myeloscopy. There is a needle, and a scope involved, where he can see on a screen just what is going on. It is also a proceedure that would leave open the possilility of surgery down the line, or at a later time. This is investigative type of proceedure. I did not read anything on four sites, that addressed the pain issue with this proceedure. Maybe the Anesthetic used to numb will make this test not so bad. I will keep looking. ginnie