When it comes to sciatica, the pain can be excruciating. At any one point in time, approximately 1% of the population suffers from sciatica due to a pinched nerve. To those who are suffering, it may seem that the only option is to undergo surgery for pain relief. Here are five sciatica treatment options that may allow a person to avoid an operation, yet still obtain pain relief.

1. Begin the acute treatment with a Medrol Dosepak. The Medrol Dosepak is a large burst of prednisone medication, which is a hefty anti-inflammatory taken by mouth. The medication involves a large amount of the steroid at the beginning and then a tapering dose over the next few days. Taking a Medrol Dosepak can significantly decrease the pain associated with sciatica four weeks potentially.

2. Chiropractic treatment and physical therapy. These treatments can offer significant relief as well for the pain associated with sciatica. Spinal manipulations, electrical stimulation, ultrasound treatments along with lumbar stretching and strengthening can make sciatica pain tolerable.

3. Spinal decompression therapy. This treatment evolved in the late 1990s and was FDA cleared around the turn-of-the-century. It represents a cost effective therapy that provides intermittent spinal traction that can help decompress a pinched nerve four weeks to months at a time. Success rates with spinal decompression therapy are very high for back pain and sciatica.

4.  Epidural steroid injections. Cortisone injections around the pinched nerve have shown
satisfactory results overall for over 50 years for sciatica. Injections are performed as an outpatient and may need to be in a series of three injections. The overall good to excellent pain reduction results are over 75% from these injections. They are a low-risk procedure that can help a patient avoid surgery due to sciatica pain.

5. Neurologic medications and muscle relaxers. Opioid medications do not work extremely well for sciatica pain. However, neurologic medications such as gabapentin and Lyrica may provide excellent pain relief for sciatica. In addition, having a pinched nerve often makes the patients back spasm considerably. Due to this, the muscle relaxer can make life a lot more tolerable in times of severe pain due to spasms.

With these five treatment options, pain relief may be achieved with sciatica and surgery may be avoided. None of these treatments cure the problem. The body knows that the piece of disc herniation that is pinching a nerve is not supposed to be there. Therefore, these treatments are aimed at alleviating pain while the body hopefully disintegrates the piece of disc that is pinching the nerve.

Often times this will be successful, and over 90% of those with sciatica do not end up needing an operation. If you live in the Scottsdale and Phoenix metropolitan area and are suffering from sciatica, Arizona Pain Specialists can help you.

They have Board Certified and fellowship trained Arizona pain doctors along with Chandler chiropractor physicians and physiotherapy doctors to help with sciatica pain. They have several locations around the valley and take most major insurances along with Medicare and Medicaid. Personal-injury and Worker’s Compensation is accepted too.

Call 602-507-6550 for more information and scheduling.