Sciatic Pai

[Junior100]

I began experiencing lower back pain and sciatic nerve pain on my right side a little over three months ago and have tried everything to help it heal but nothing seems to be getting me back to normal. I tried physical therapy and do all the stretches they gave me. Did acupuncture, which helped a lot with the pain. But I still can't seem to bend over or function properly. I get shooting tingling/pain down my leg while standing (especially after sitting down for a period of time) and I get a shooting pain in my back when I try to bend over with my right leg straightened. I am 23 years old, am in good shape and work on my feet and go to school so this has been a bit of an issue for me. I've tried a lot of stretches which do help with the pain but don't seem to help with mobility. Does anyone have any advice? Oh, and this just sort of came out of nowhere. It just began hurting and got worse and worse one day. I didn't do anything that instantly caused me pain..

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

Thank you for your question. Although without being able to examine you I can not offer you the specific advice on diagnosis and treatment that you need, but I would try to provide you some relevant information about your health concern.

Sciatica is a set of symptoms including pain that may be due to compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve, which may occur due to disc hernia, disc degeneration or spondylolithesis. So, the treatment modalities also range from anti-inflammatory, physiotherapy, non-surgical decompression or surgical decompression. But, surgical modalities may have 50% chances of relapse of pain. Before opting for surgical procedures, you should evaluate both the pros and cons. Hope this helps.

[caregiver222]

You might be a candidate for a surgical procedure called a laminectomy. You require a lumbar MRI to get a handle on the problem.