Actually it really is quite an individual thing in terms of how bad it is, what the course will be and what would help it ..
check out this website:
ChiroGeek's Home Page
Many of us here have had multiple surgeries for bulging or herniated discs and related spinal problems. You can even look at the surgical outcome forum and read about people's cases to get an idea of how long people had whatever and how they dealt with it and the outcome.
Good luck to your brother.. spine problems can be absolute misery that unless one has the actual problem it's difficult to imagine all the pain that can be involved. It's nice that you're trying to find out more about your brother's condition tho as I said everyone is individual with his/her diagnosis and degree of problem.