Sciatica

What is sciatica?

Sciatica is a painful condition that develops from compression or irritation of the nerve roots that make up your sciatic nerve as it exits the lumbar spine. 

Your sciatic nerve is a sensory and motor nerve. It’s made up of several small nerves that exit from your lumbar spine and join together to travel deep inside your buttocks and down the back of your legs on both sides of the body. 

With sciatica, you feel pain that radiates along the path of the nerve, usually only on one side of your body. Your pain may range from a mild ache to severe burning or electric-shock-like sensations.

What causes sciatica?

Sciatica most often occurs from irritation of the nerve root as it exits the lumbar spine. The irritation is most often caused by a herniated disc or bone spur that develops from degenerative changes that affect your spine as you get older. 

Other conditions that may cause sciatica include

• Lumbar spinal stenosis
• Degenerative disc disease
• Spondylolisthesis
• Pregnancy
• Muscle spasms in the back or buttocks
  
  

You may be at greater risk of developing sciatica if you have a job that requires heavy lifting, regular twisting of your spine, or prolonged sitting. Obesity and diabetes also increase your risk of developing sciatica.

What are the treatments for sciatica?

The Advanced Pain Management team offers many effective and innovative treatments for sciatica. Treatments include:

Spinal injections

To reduce inflammation and swelling of the spinal nerve roots and surrounding tissues, the team provides epidural injections into the spine near the area of nerve root irritation. 

Spinal cord stimulation

When other treatments and interventions fail to alleviate your sciatica symptoms, the team may recommend spinal cord stimulation. The device delivers low-level electrical signals to the spinal cord or specific nerves to block pain signals. 

Radiofrequency ablation

During radiofrequency ablation, the team at Advanced Pain Management destroys the nerve sending the pain signal to your brain to provide long-term pain relief. 

Though rare, in some cases, surgery may be needed to fix the underlying cause of your sciatica to provide effective pain relief.

For relief from your sciatica, call Advanced Pain Management or book an appointment online today.