Sciatic Nerve Help

Primary treatments of sciatica symptoms is resting the nerve, allowing the inflammation that has developed on the nerve to settle and heal. In an attempt to ease the pain, a variety of medications (such as painkillers and muscle relaxants) may be prescribed, or sedative agents can be injected into the area around the spinal cord. In many cases though the reason for the sciatic nerve pain is due to a spine injury, and these treatments either won’t work or will not last, and surgery may be necessary.

Surgery is usually the only option when the chronic nerve causes significant deteriorating muscles, or if you have pain that gradually gets worse even with other treatments due to a herniated disc or other spine injury. New scientific techniques like microsurgery and percutaneous removal of small disk fragments are being developed. Percutaneous means having surgery done through a needle, eliminating the need to cut the skin. You can literally have the procedure done on your back with no skin cutting at all, except for a needle puncture. Using these procedures will decrease time spent in the hospital, letting you go back to work pretty quickly. It will also leave you with a small scar or no scar at all on your skin. Unfortunately not all people with a herniated disc or other spine injury are appropriate for these types of procedures.

Surgical options to correct a back injury might include microdiscectomy or discectomy. When doing discectomy surgeons remove some of the herniated disc that is pressing on the sciatic nerve. Preferably, the largest part of the disc is left intact, to gain as much of the normal structure as possible.
Successful surgeons might perform the procedure through a small incision (microdiscectomy). Doing so requires a microscope to be inserted in the small cut, thus making it easier on the patient. Having a smaller cut means less hospital stay and recovery time, and being able to go back to work and normal life faster. Success for the microscopic procedure is about equivalent to the discectomy, you only have less pain and the benefit of a faster healing.

Epidural steroid injections

In some cases to help alleviate the pain you may need an injection of corticosteroid medication in the lower back area. Corticosteroids medication can sometimes suppress the affected nerve and help ease the pain.

Your doctor will usually have live spinal x-ray (fluoroscopy) during an epidural procedure. Using a fluoroscopy creates less of a chance for error in locating the accurate location for injection. It also reduces the chances greatly of a complication of puncturing the spinal cord or hit the nerve directly.

Injection is administered through a very thin needle so as not to hurt during the procedure and not leave any scars on the skin. Also there is no wound that necessitates any treatments. The patient can usually walk right home after the injection immediately.
Many patients, who have had the epidural steroid injection procedure done, swear by it. They report that you can’t get better results than with injection treatment. Keep in mind that epidural steroid injection treatment does not cure your back or sciatica, it only makes it go away for a while but will come back again and again. You also have to deal with the fact that some drugs being inserted may have side effects. It is therefore advisable to proceed with this treatment only as long as it is extremely necessary. On the other hand, epidural injection therapy is still agreed to be the best temporary relief of back pain-related physical conditions. Precisely because of the side effects of the traditional treatments many people have turned to the non traditional sciatic pain remedies. Results have been far greater and relief has been easier to achieve with some remedies. Especially for women who have sciatica with pregnancy, remedies may be the only option.

Sciatica Pain Remedies

Treatment for Sciatica