Surgical Sciatica Treatment

spinal stenosis

For those of you that have tried virtually every method of sciatica treatment available to no avail surgery may be your final option for persistent lower back pain which may be causes due to an anatomical situation such as spinal stenosis, a herniated disc or spondylolisthesis. Emergency surgery may be necessary in the case of a tumor being present of is one losses bladder or bowel control. Such incidences are rare.

For those that have a herniated disc there are two surgical options such as a discectomy or a laminectomy which may require a spinal fusion. In the case of spinal stenosis a spinal compression may be requested. In the case of spondylolisthesis the surgical sciatica treatment procedure may require a fusion and decompression or maybe just a fusion. A surgical sciatica treatment such as a laminectomy is an open surgical procedure.

A laminectomy involves a small portion of the bone being removed in the spine known as the lamina. By removing this small bone pressure is alleviated on the sciatic nerve. During this type of surgical procedure fragments of the ruptured disc may also be scraped away. A small incision is made in the lower back and the overlying muscles are spread and the lamina is removed.

Once the lamina is removed, it then becomes visible as to what is compressing the sciatic nerve, which in turn will be removed and the incision is closed and stitched. Sciatica treatment such as a spinal fusion which involves two bones or vertebrae being fused together and will then eliminate the pain that was caused by the movement of the vertebrae.

The vertebrae are joined together by means of using a bone graft and to provide stability the use of metal pins and rods may also be included. Fusion will take place when new bone growth occurs which can take up to three to six months to heal completely. Surgical sciatica treatment such as a discectomy is a procedure whereby the protruding disc which forms part of the backbone is removed and the pressure on the verve is released.

A relatively new sciatica treatment offers a total disc replacement which is an alternative to a spinal fusion. This procedure comprises of an artificial disc that is used to replace the damaged disc. The damaged portion is repaired while the spine in turn is still able to maintain its mobility. However, this procedure is still inconclusive and remains controversial.