Sciatic Nerve Pain Treatment

The sciatic nerve is the largest single nerve in the human body, and when there is pressure put on the sciatic nerve it can be extremely painful. Itnerve branches off from the bottom of your spine and runs down each leg, and most sciatic nerve pain will radiate down the leg to the ankle. It can be a sharp pain that feels like needles being stuck in your leg, or it can be a burning sensation that makes it difficult to walk or sit. Treatment can involve medication, exercise, surgery, or a combination of the three.

Exercise and Rest

• One of the more effective ways of treating sciatic nerve pain is with extended bed rest of about two weeks. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly 70% of the patients with sciatic nerve pain reported improvement after two weeks of inactivity and bed rest. Depending on the severity of the condition, rest can allow the inflammation in the nerve to subside and reduce the pain.

  Another effective way of reducing sciatic nerve pain is to alternate putting heat and then cold on the affected area. To get the best results simply apply heat to the area for 20 minutes and then remove it. Then wait 20 minutes and apply cold, then repeat this until the pain has subsided.

  Bed rest and applying heat or cold do not address the cause of the sciatic nerve pain; they only reduce the pain. Until the cause of the pain is found and addressed, the pain will continue to return.

Medication

• Your symptoms may be severe enough where your doctor may prescribe pain medication to allow you relief from your pain. In some cases sciatic nerve pain is caused when muscles surrounding the nerve are contracted so tightly that they create very painful pressure. To relieve this pain, your doctor will prescribe muscle relaxers that will cause the muscle to release the nerve and eliminate the pain.

Surgery

• In very severe cases your doctor may determine that surgery is necessary to relieve your pain. A sciatic nerve could be pinched in hip joint and the only way to stop the pain is to remove the nerve from the joint. In some cases, the discs in the back have degenerated to the point that they are bulging from the spine and putting pressure on the sciatic nerve. Your doctor will remove the protruding portion of the disc to relieve the pain.