I'm a neurologist. When do neurosurgeons feel surgery is indicated for management of radiculopathy?

I'm a community neurologist, and daily I encounter the decision as to whether to refer a patient to a surgeon to manage radiculopathy. I'm hoping to get some guidance to best understand what warrants referral.

In my circumstance, these are patient's who are symptomatic (pain and myotome weakness), but may have had these symptoms for 12+ months. Very frequently, when I EMG these patients, the injury is chronic and almost entirely reinnervated.

So my question to you all, are there any rules-of-thumb you use to determine whether a person is, or is not, a candidate for surgical management of radiculopathy? The articles I've read on this topic basically all say that some patients benefit from surgery (particularly in the short term) and some do well without surgery, but understanding which outcome a patient is likely to have isn't always clear.