Can Sciatica Be Cured?
The good news is that most people with sciatica start to feel better within a few weeks. In about 90 to 95 percent of cases, sciatica is resolved with time and conservative, non-surgical treatments. For some, though, the pain continues for a year or longer.
Fortunately, there are many strategies you can try for sciatica leg pain relief.
Exercises
Building up the muscles that support your spine and stretching the leg muscles involved in sciatica leg pain can help.
A physical therapist can make sure you’re doing the exercises correctly so that you get the most out of them and don’t hurt yourself. If you’re in too much pain for exercise, steroid injections may bring you enough relief to get started.
Medication
Over-the-counter acetaminophen or nonsteroidal inflammatory drugs such as naproxen and ibuprofen are enough to get many people through the pain. Other patients may need muscle relaxants, antidepressants, or opiate pain relievers, although medications must be taken with care to avoid becoming dependent on them.
Alternative Therapies
Chiropractic treatment, acupuncture, and massage therapy are sometimes used either alone or in combination with other treatments to treat sciatica leg pain.
Epidural Steroid Injections
Some patients are able to get relief lasting three to four months from steroid injections.
Nerve Blocks
Injection of nerve-numbing medication into the area that is the source of the pain may be recommended for some patients.
Radiofrequency Ablation
In this minimally invasive procedure, nerve fibers in the back that carry pain signals are destroyed to block the pain.
Surgery
Most patients with sciatica will not need surgery, but it can be an option if disabling pain isn’t responding to other treatments.
Spinal Cord Stimulation
If other options aren’t working, your doctor may recommend spinal cord stimulation, in which a device that delivers mild electrical pulses is implanted near the spinal cord to block pain signals.
TPC Treatments for Sciatica
TPC Spine Stim
The Pain Center offers the TPC Spine Stim. This FDA-approved procedure offers a minimally invasive approach to relieving sciatica pain. A nerve stimulation device is planted in the pain area to deliver low-voltage electrical currents for pain relief.
TPC Nerve Stim
TPC Nerve Stim is a peripheral nerve stimulation procedure. A small electrical wire is implanted along damaged peripheral nerves to deliver rapid electrical pulses. The TPC Nerve Stim targets pain caused by complex regional pain syndromes, nerve injuries, and chronic back pain.
TPC Spine Decompress
The TPC Spine Decompress offers pain relief from the symptoms of spinal stenosis, including sciatica. In this treatment procedure, a small trocar needle is used to locate where the narrowing is causing the pain is occurring. Following this, we use a small instrument called the rongeur to remove excessive bone or tissue to open the area.
Published On: April 26, 2018
Updated On: April 6, 2023
