Sciatica Lower Back Pain and Disc Herniations

Low back pain affects millions of people each year.  There are many treatment for lower back pain.  Lower back pain can turn into sciatica if there is a disc herniation involved in the cause of pain.  The discs are spacers or shock absorbers between each of you spinal vertebra.  The disc are made up of two parts, an outside cartilage and an inside jelly.  If the jelly leaks out it can touch the spinal nerves and you may have sciatica.

Below is an article that compares chiropractic care with surgical care for disc herniations.  These outcomes are what chiropractors see on a daily basis.  If you or someone you know has sciatica and do not know what to do or are considering surgery and have not given chiropractic care a try please read this short abstract and then give me a call.  I have been treating lower back pain, disc herniations and sciatica for over 18 years and would like the opportunity to help you.  If I cannot, I do work with a great group of surgeons.

Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics
Volume 33, Issue 8 , Pages 576-584, October 2010

Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical efficacy of spinal manipulation against microdiskectomy in patients with sciatica secondary to lumbar disk herniation (LDH).

Methods

One hundred twenty patients presenting through elective referral by primary care physicians to neurosurgical spine surgeons were consecutively screened for symptoms of unilateral lumbar radiculopathy secondary to LDH at L3-4, L4-5, or L5-S1. Forty consecutive consenting patients who met inclusion criteria (patients must have failed at least 3 months of nonoperative management including treatment with analgesics, lifestyle modification, physiotherapy, massage therapy, and/or acupuncture) were randomized to either surgical microdiskectomy or standardized chiropractic spinal manipulation. Crossover to the alternate treatment was allowed after 3 months.

Results

Significant improvement in both treatment groups compared to baseline scores over time was observed in all outcome measures. After 1 year, follow-up intent-to-treat analysis did not reveal a difference in outcome based on the original treatment received. However, 3 patients crossed over from surgery to spinal manipulation and failed to gain further improvement. Eight patients crossed from spinal manipulation to surgery and improved to the same degree as their primary surgical counterparts.

Conclusions

Sixty percent of patients with sciatica who had failed other medical management benefited from spinal manipulation to the same degree as if they underwent surgical intervention. Of 40% left unsatisfied, subsequent surgical intervention confers excellent outcome. Patients with symptomatic LDH failing medical management should consider spinal manipulation followed by surgery if warranted