Monday, December 26, 2011

When Dealing With Sciatica What are My Options for Relief

By David Greene


At times sciatica occurs from a herniated disc pushing on a nerve root. The sciatic nerve is actually a combination of multiple nerve roots including 2 lumbar nerves and the 1st sacral nerve root which come together.

This is why when the sciatic nerve is being compressed, in layman's terms called a pinched nerve, it is termed sciatica. Typically depending on which nerve root of the sciatic nerve is actually being compressed up around the spinal column, is where the patient will have the pain in his leg anatomically. In order to avoid surgery from a herniated disc, what are the treatment options available in the acute phase of having sciatica?

One of the 1st things that should be tried is to seek treatment at a pain management center. Initially muscle relaxants along with physical therapy and probably some narcotic medications and anti-inflammatories will be started. Additionally, Tylenol can help. When anti-inflammatories are being utilized a gastric protection medication such as Zantac should be instituted as well.

Physical therapy may help a lot along with chiropractic treatment including spinal decompression therapy to unload the pensioner. The various medications can help make life tolerable and also a back brace and helped with decreasing the back pain.

A significant amount of time narcotics did not work so great for sciatica. If this is the problem then a neuromodulation medication such as Neurontin or Lyrica may do the trick.

Along with these medications in the physical therapy interventional pain management injections may also help with pain relief. This could include multiple epidural steroid injections placed under real-time fluoroscopic guidance to ensure accuracy.

This will not fix the area of the pinched nerve, it will simply bathe the area with soothing steroid medication to help decrease inflammation and hence the pain associated with it.

Some people are still under the impression that it's a good idea to be on bed rest with a pensioner. There are numerous studies showing that this is a terrible idea and can make the situation worse. And relating as much as tolerable while trying to do most of your daily activities is actually much better for your lower back.

So the combination of treatments which includes medications, physical therapy, spinal decompression therapy, chiropractic treatment, back bracing, and potentially injections can easily allow patient to maintain pain relief while avoiding surgery.

Although a discectomy surgery has small risks associated with it, they are real and it is much better to avoid surgery if at all possible. We know that at a years time after surgery, if the patient was able to avoid surgery, the results are equivalent.




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