To evaluate the effect of traditional Chinese medicine on lumbar degenerative diseases based on magnetic resonance（MR）voxel incoherent motion diffusion weighted imaging（IVIEM-DWI）.

A total of 84 patients with lumbar degenerative diseases treated in the hospital from June 2021 to June2023 were included in the study. They were divided into two groups by random number table method. Forty-two cases in the control group were treated by conventional methods，and the other 42 cases in the observation group were treated by Duhuo Jisheng Decoction（独活寄生汤）combined with traditional Chinese medicine. The therapeutic effect，changes in lumbar function，pain score，straight leg elevation angle and IVIEM-DWID quantitative parameters were compared between the two groups.

The total effective rate of the observation group was 95.24%（40/42），which was higher than that of the control group（73.81%，31/42）. After treatment，Japanese Orthopaedic Association（JOA）score and straight leg elevation angle of the observation group were higher than those of the control group，and Oswestry Disability Index（ODI）and visual analogue scale（VAS）scores were lower than those of the control group（P<0.05）. After treatment，the values of apparent diffusion coefficient（ADC）and slow diffusion coefficient（D）in the observation group were higher than those in the control group，and there were significant differences between groups（P<0.05）.

Traditional Chinese medicine has a clear effect on the treatment of lumbar degenerative diseases，which can effectively reduce the symptoms of patients with low back pain or lower extremity radiative pain，improve lumbar motion and promote the recovery of lumbar function. IVIEM-DWID can effectively evaluate the degree of lumbar degenerative diseases and provide reference for treatment.