My Nephew's Sciatica And Its Treatment

One of my nephews started complaining of pins and needles pain in the left buttock which goes all the way down to his thigh. After consultation with a spine specialist and after a number of radiographs, the doctor told him that he is suffering from something called sciatica. Now my nephew wanted to know about this so called sciatica more. As usual I have collected some of the most important facts of sciatica.

Sciatica is the pain which is caused by irritation of sciatic nerve. Sciatica (not psyatica or syatica) is characterized by in the lower back and gluteal region. This pain radiates down to the thighs, knees, calf, ankle and foot. The pain is caused due to compression or injury to the nerve roots of sciatic nerve. This pain is characterized by as sharp and pins and needles and sometimes dull and numb in nature.


The sciatic nerves are found at the lumbosacral region. The compression of this nerve may happen due to a bulging or slipped disk. Infection in this area can also cause sciatica. My nephews cause for his sciatica was a herniated disk. By the way the doctor also told him that it also caused generally by spinal stenosis and sometime as said earlier infection and some times presence of tumor.

Treatment for sciatica consisted of two steps first pain relief and then surgery. For relief of the sciatic pain NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are prescribed like ibuprofen and codeine depending on the severity of the pain.

Epidural steroid injections are also provided for the relief of sciatic pain. All these treatments for pain relief control the symptoms not the problem. For this reason my nephew agreed to undergo surgery for treatment of his sciatica nerve pain.
He actually underwent this surgery for sciatica in October last year and is very pleased with the results.