Lower back pain generally originates from the disc and leg pain generally originates from nerve compression. If you have a recurrent disc herniation but have more back pain than leg pain, I would agree with your surgeon. A redo microdiscectomy should improve the leg pain but the back pain will probably not improve much.
However, if your back pain symptoms fit with degenerative disc disease (see website) and you have more back than leg pain, a workup to determine if you are a candidate for a fusion would be in order. A fusion (lets say a TLIF-see website) would improve both back and leg symptoms.
Dr. Corenman