Failed back surgery syndrome is still a challenging therapeutic problem. Clinical studies have demonstrated a significant association between lumbar spinal fibrosis after lumbar discectomy and the recurrence of radicular pain in 25% of cases. Forceful epidural infiltrations, radiotherapy, therapy with D-penicillamine or surgical procedures have had unfavourable results in terms of pain and cost. Magnetic resonance imaging reveals lumbar spinal fibrosis by a hyposignal in the T1 sequence and a hypersignal in T2 sequence around the spinal tissue. Tumor necrosis factor a (TNF-a) is the main cytokine implicated in the formation of tissue fibrosis. In animal models of fibrosis, TNF-a inhibition has been shown to prevent and treat tissue fibrosis.