How To Achieve Total Sciatic Nerve Pain Relief

Before a patient and his or her doctor could achieve sciatic nerve pain relief and treatments, it is paramount to know what are the symptoms and the cause of sciatica to begin with.

Sciatica develops as a result of compression or inflammation of the sciatic nerve (sometimes misspelled as “ciatic nerve”) or its nerve roots in the lower spine. This pressure or nerve compression is what is commonly termed as a “pinched nerve.”

Conditions That Need Sciatic Nerve Pain Relief

There are a number of conditions that may lead to sciatica. These include…

Herniated Disc in the Lumbar Spine – Extrusion of the contents of the disc center compresses the spinal cord or nerve roots.
Spinal Stenosis – Compression of the spinal cord or nerve root caused by the narrowing of spaces in the spinal column, causing back pain.
Spinal Osteoarthritis – Bone spurs or broken off bits of cartilage and bone may irritate the sciatic nerve.
Spondylolisthesis – Misalignment of the vertebrae causes impingement of the sciatic nerve
Muscles Strain
Piriformis Syndrome
Pregnancy

When any of these conditions are present, sciatica nerve pain results, which is described as a sharp, needle piercing pain that starts from the lower back and/or buttocks and shoots down the back of the leg descending further to the knee and foot. Sciatic pain is commonly one-sided, depending upon whether the left or right sciatic nerve of the body is affected.

Available Sciatic Nerve Pain Relief

Generally speaking, treatment of sciatica is largely conservative, concentrated on pain relief. However, in some patients, these conservatives are not enough.

When one talks of sciatica nerve pain relief, this would specifically involve direct intervention on the condition that is causing the irritation or compression of the nerve in order to bring back back health. This could be as simple as massage therapy or stretching exercises for sciatica caused by muscle tension and spasms.

In the case of herniated disc, spinal decompression could draw the extruded disc contents back into the center, relieving compression upon the nerve. Corrective surgeries for spondylolisthesis and spinal stenosis also relieve sciatic nerve impingement. Surgery is particularly indicated in patients with progressive weakness or loss of bladder or bowel function (“cauda equina syndrome“).

Whether the procedure is simply conservative or surgical, the end result should be to help relieve the pain and a total sciatic nerve pain relief.