Determine the Right Time When to Consider Surgery for Sciatica and Lower Back Pain?
August 26th, 2008 by admin | 2 Comments | Filed in Back PainSurgery was thought to be the most effective cure to back pains. Lower back pain and sciatica actually can drive you crazy enough to want to get an operation. Earlier the only viable treatment for back pains used to be surgery and anybody who would go to a doctor with backpain would be advised to take an operation. This in fact would either help or not depending on the success of the operation. What is significant to note here is that most of these back pain surgeries would not result in any formidable result. In fact even if the operation is successful, it would not necessarily mean that the backache would disappear and thus you would be stranded wherever you were anyway. Thus a consultation with the doctor is essential nowadays to decide when to consider surgery for sciatica and lower back pain.
Back pain is a constant accompaniment to the modern life. 80% of people seem to have some sort of back ache or the other. Low back pain in fact is the most common form. Surgery now has obviously been disproved as the preferred treatment for its high failure rates and high costs and inconvenience. Lower back pain relief is possible without an operation and in fact, only one per cent of the patient population actually resorts to surgery nowadays. Rest and patience often can cure low back pain effectively.
Surgery is in fact the solution only in cases where the pain persists over time and often in spite of treatment of some kind. The pain too needs to be taken care of only if it assumes alarming magnitude. In other cases of mild pain treatment need not be that much of a problem. Thus the most effective ways of controlling or ending sciatica and lower back pain in usual cases is non-surgical treatment. In fact these are more common nowadays.
There are several ways of going about the treatment in non-surgical ways. There are medicines that can take care of your backaches. There could be some that are offered over the counter and others that are available only as prescribed drugs. Be careful to choose NSAIDS or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and not something that is harmful in the long run. You could also take painkiller injections. There can be other injections involved in the treatment that help the doctor analyze the causes of sciatica and back pain. Epidural Steroid Injections and Facet Joint Injections are examples of such injections that have a diagnostic purpose. But then the doctor has to prescribe it.
The most usual techniques are those that employ physical modalities of pain management. Heat and cold treatment is mostly used to reduce inflammation and spasms. There is also the technique of sound therapy using sound waves that send these waves up the muscles to reduce contraction and release them. Blood circulation is also promoted by sound waves along with ensuring spinal traction and reduction of inflammation.
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation or TENS is a method that employs a safe current flow to energize nerves and enhances mobility that in turn relieves back muscles.
There are other modalities in the form of chiropractic care that pertains to low back pain and its relief. Often in such cases care is taken to realign the vertebrae on the spine by the means of manual manipulation and massaging. There are also alternative treatments like acupuncture and natural herbal remedy that help relieve sciatica and lower back pain. But then these should be used with caution and only under the guidance of a practitioner.
However, if you still are unsure about your backpain treatment, seek doctor’s advice to determine when to consider surgery for sciatica and lower back pain.

