Objective To explore the therapeutic evaluation of MRI imaging of surgical therapy for lumbar disc herniation. Methods 32 cases of patients with lumbar disc herniation admitted into the hospital were selected as the research object. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was carried out before and after surgery and the clinical efficacy was evaluated. Results All the 32 patients in the group were operated successfully and the excellent and good rate was 87.5%. There were postoperative complications appearing in 2 cases and after the targeted treatment, they were significantly improved; VAS score after the treatment was (3.07±1.06) which was lower than that before the treatment. JOA score was (23.94±3.27) which was higher than that before the treatment and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05); after the treatment, the epidural indentation radius vector, epidural indentation longitudinal axis, intervertebral space height respectively were (3.98±1.85)mm, (9.52±4.06)mm and (9.05±2.61) mm which were lower than those before the treatment and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05); After the treatment, the degree of cartilaginous degradation was lighter than that before the treatment and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05); There 28 cases of significantly rebounded intervertebral tissue T2WI; 32 cases of nerve root thickening, significantly changes of degeneration and decreasing T2WI signal. Conclusion MRI can be used as an important imaging method to evaluate the efficacy of the treatment of lumbar disc herniation.