What Is Lumbar Radiculopathy and How Is It Treated?

If you’ve ever had low­er back pain, you’re hard­ly alone. Almost every­one has pain in their low­er back at some point in their lives. Most of the time, it’s tem­po­rary and isn’t a sign of some­thing serious.

Low­er back pain is usu­al­ly the result of an injury to the mus­cles or ten­dons in your back. How­ev­er, there are oth­er pos­si­ble caus­es, such as con­di­tions involv­ing prob­lems with your nerves. One of the most com­mon con­di­tions is lum­bar radicu­lopa­thy (also known as sciatica).

If you’ve been diag­nosed with lum­bar radicu­lopa­thy, take a deep breath – most cas­es can be cured. It just takes patience and find­ing the right treat­ment for you.

Here’s what you need to know about lum­bar radicu­lopa­thy and what to expect from treatment.

What Is Lum­bar Radiculopathy?

Lum­bar radicu­lopa­thy refers to the symp­toms that occur when one of your nerve roots (short branch­es of spinal nerves) in the lum­bar (low­er) spine becomes pinched, dam­aged, or irri­tat­ed. It’s com­mon­ly called sci­at­i­ca, since it involves the nerve roots that make up the sci­at­ic nerve.

The main symp­tom of sci­at­i­ca is pain, which is fre­quent­ly described as feel­ing like an elec­tric shock. The pain often shoots down or radi­ates into the hip, but­tocks, legs, and feet, and may get worse when you bend, cough, or sneeze.

In addi­tion to pain, sci­at­i­ca can cause numb­ness, a burn­ing sen­sa­tion down the leg, or tin­gling (like the ​“pins and nee­dles” feel­ing you get when your leg falls asleep). In severe cas­es, it can cause mus­cle weak­ness or uri­nary or fecal incon­ti­nence (the loss of con­trol over your blad­der or bowels).

Most cas­es are caused by a her­ni­at­ed lum­bar disc. This is when part of a disc (the rub­bery cush­ions between spine bones) slips through a weak­ened part of the disc, putting pres­sure on the spinal cord and irri­tat­ing spinal nerves. Sci­at­i­ca can also be the result of oth­er prob­lems, like osteoarthri­tis, disc dis­ease, and spinal steno­sis (when the space around your spinal cord becomes too nar­row). It typ­i­cal­ly occurs in peo­ple 40 and older.

Read on Duly Health and Care: The Aging Spine

At-Home Treat­ments for Sciatica

If you’re squea­mish about surgery, you’re in luck. Sci­at­i­ca usu­al­ly doesn’t require surgery. For most peo­ple with mild sci­at­i­ca, self-care treat­ments and minor lifestyle adjust­ments like alter­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty are enough to do the trick.

If you have mod­er­ate or severe symp­toms, such as tin­gling and numb­ness or mus­cle weak­ness, do not try to treat them on your own. These symp­toms require med­ical care.

Self-Care for Sciatica

Some treat­ments you can try on your own include:

• Ice or cold packs: Use these for 20 min­utes at a time, sev­er­al times per day, for the first few days to reduce swelling and pain. 
• Heat: After a few days of ice or cold, switch to using a warm com­press or heat­ing pad for 20 min­utes at a time. You may want to alter­nate between heat and ice. 
• Over-the-counter pain med­ica­tions: Med­i­cines like naprox­en sodi­um (e.g., Aleve®) and ibupro­fen (e.g., Advil® or Motrin®) may help for short-term relief.

Stay­ing Active (Safe­ly)

It’s okay to relax for a few days, but you should resist the temp­ta­tion to stay in bed until your back pain heals entire­ly. Mov­ing around can help ease and short­en the dura­tion of symptoms.

The key is to do the right type of move­ment that doesn’t make your sci­at­i­ca worse. Focus on light aer­o­bic activ­i­ty and exer­cis­es that stretch your ham­strings and strength­en your core. Avoid activ­i­ties that involve run­ning, jump­ing, heavy lift­ing, bend­ing, and twisting.

While it’s impor­tant to keep mov­ing, it’s just as impor­tant to pro­tect your sci­at­i­ca from get­ting worse. A lit­tle bit of pain dur­ing activ­i­ty is fine, but stop right away if the pain gets worse.

Non­sur­gi­cal Med­ical Care for Sciatica

When self-care doesn’t work, the next step is get­ting care from a med­ical provider.

In many cas­es, the first line of med­ical treat­ment is phys­i­cal ther­a­py (PT). Your phys­i­cal ther­a­pist might rec­om­mend try­ing a spe­cial­ized form of PT called aquat­ic ther­a­py that takes place in the water.

Besides PT, your provider may pre­scribe pain med­ica­tions or mus­cle relax­ers, or give you spinal injec­tions of corticosteroids.

Read on Duly Health and Care: Under­stand­ing Pain Man­age­ment Options

Sci­at­i­ca Surgery

Surgery enters the pic­ture when sci­at­i­ca symp­toms are severe or don’t get bet­ter with oth­er treat­ments. There are two main types of surgery. In some cas­es, you may need both types.

• Diskec­to­my is used when sci­at­i­ca is caused by a her­ni­at­ed disc. The sur­geon will remove small sec­tions of the her­ni­at­ed disc that are press­ing on a nerve. 
• Laminec­to­my is used to remove part of the lam­i­na (the bony arch that sup­ports the back of your spinal cord) that’s press­ing on spinal nerves.

There’s good news if you need surgery. Peo­ple who get surgery for sci­at­i­ca actu­al­ly tend to have faster recov­er­ies than those who get non­sur­gi­cal treat­ments. Depend­ing on the type of surgery, many peo­ple can start walk­ing the next day and make a full recov­ery with­in 2 to 4 weeks. Even for more inva­sive surg­eries, most peo­ple can get back to their every­day activ­i­ties with­in a few months.

Don’t let sci­at­i­ca con­trol your life, our spine spe­cial­ists at South Bend Clin­ic can help you find relief. Call (574) 234‑8161 to sched­ule your appoint­ment today and take the first step toward get­ting back to the activ­i­ties you love.

Alter­na­tive and Com­ple­men­tary Sci­at­i­ca Treatments

Alter­na­tive and com­ple­men­tary treat­ments are those that aren’t part of stan­dard med­ical care but can be very help­ful for reduc­ing pain. These treat­ments have become increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar in the world of sci­at­i­ca. Peo­ple with sci­at­i­ca often use mas­sage ther­a­py, yoga, acupunc­ture, and chi­ro­prac­tic care to ease low­er back pain. Your provider may rec­om­mend using these in addi­tion to med­ical treat­ments, rather than instead of them.

Read on Duly Health and Care: Phys­i­cal Ther­a­py and Chi­ro­prac­tic Care – What’s the Difference?

When to Get Med­ical Care for Sciatica

Since most cas­es of sci­at­i­ca go away with time and some sim­ple lifestyle adjust­ments, you might not need med­ical care. How­ev­er, if your pain is mod­er­ate or severe, or is get­ting in the way of your dai­ly life, make sure to see your health­care provider. You should also see a provider if you have symp­toms like tin­gling and numb­ness in addi­tion to pain.

In gen­er­al, sci­at­i­ca isn’t a med­ical emer­gency. But there are times when get­ting care imme­di­ate­ly is in order. Get help right away if you have:

• Mus­cle weakness
• Loss of blad­der or bow­el control
• Severe pain that lasts more than a few hours and stops you from doing your usu­al activities
• Sud­den, severe pain or numb­ness right after a trau­mat­ic event, like a fall or car accident

Any back pain, whether it’s due to sci­at­i­ca, anoth­er med­ical con­di­tion, or an injury, can be frus­trat­ing and take a toll on your every­day life. But with self-care and the right treat­ment, you’re very like­ly to make a full recovery.

If you think you have sci­at­i­ca or need treat­ment for low­er back pain, sched­ule an appoint­ment at The South Bend Clinic’s Spine Cen­ter by call­ing (574) 234‑8161.