Lower Back Pain Info

Learn About Sciatic Nerve Treatment

Sciatica has a number of different causes so your choice of sciatic nerve treatment depends largely on this. Nevertheless, there are still a wide range of options available that can greatly reduce or eliminate the pain and make a radical improvement to your quality of life.

Cause Of Your Sciatica

The sciatic nerve is the largest in your body and runs from your lower back, down your buttock and into your leg. When the nerve is compressed or irritated then this can give rise to sciatica.

Nerve compression or irritation can itself occur due to herniation of a disc, degeneration of one or more discs (e.g. due to age or injury), narrowing of the spinal canal (stenosis) or misalignment of the vertebrae.

Over The Counter Remedies

Sometimes sciatica will only last for around six weeks or less. In these cases, the best thing to do is use over the counter remedies like painkillers and warm and cold compresses and packs.

Epidural Injections

For patients with extremely severe pain, an epidural injection can be given. This is an injection of local anaesthetic or steroids into the space surrounding the spinal cord.

It won't cure the cause of your pain but within two weeks you should experience great pain relief that will last several months at a time.

Physiotherapy

There are many types of physiotherapy and the right one depends largely on the type of sciatica you have. For example, the McKenzie Method can be helpful if you have a herniated disc.

Other forms of physiotherapy include massage, mobilisation technique, myo-fascial release and other forms of soft tissue therapy.

Surgery

Surgery is rarely successful in the long term for back pain generally, but the success rates for sciatica are generally better. Surgery is still considered a last resort treatment and usually only recommended for patients who are experiencing severe symptoms.

If you have a herniated disc then all or part of it can be removed in a surgical procedure.

A laminectomy is a different procedure where a section of the spine is removed to free up more space for the nerves to sit in. This may be advised if your sciatica is caused by compression of the related nerves. For example, a patient with spinal stenosis who is in great pain may elect to have this procedure.

Success rates vary depending on many factors related to the surgery but usually range from 70% to 95%.