Types of Pain – Hip and Leg
Hip Injuries and Disorders
Certain diseases also lead to hip injuries or problems that may be treated by your doctor and/or Orthopedic Surgeon. Patient may also experience hip pain due to pathology originating from low back spine including disk herniation, sacroiliac disease, facet joint arthritis or spinal stenosis.
Sciatica and Leg Pain
What is sciatica?
Sciatica is a pain that runs along the sciatic nerve, a large nerve extending from the lower back and down the back of each leg. Sciatica is a common kind of back pain. Although sciatica can be very painful, it is rare for the disorder to cause permanent nerve damage.
What are the symptoms of sciatica?
- Pain in the rear or leg that is worse when sitting
- Burning or tingling down the leg
- Weakness, numbness, or difficulty moving the leg or foot
- A constant pain on one side of the rear
- A shooting pain that makes it difficult to stand up
Sciatica usually affects only one side of the lower body. Often, the pain extends from the lower back all the way through the back of the thigh and down the leg. Depending on where the sciatic nerve is affected, the pain might also extend to the foot or toes. For some people, the pain from sciatica can be severe and debilitating. For others, the pain from sciatica might be infrequent and irritating, but has the potential to get worse.
What causes sciatica?
Any condition that causes irritation to the sciatic nerve can cause the pain associated with sciatica. In many cases, sciatica is caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve from a herniated disc (also called a slipped disc or ruptured disc). Additional common causes of sciatica include:
- Lumbar spinal stenosis (narrowing of spinal canal in the lower back
- Degenerative disc disease (breakdown of discs, which act as cushions between the vertebrae)
- Weakness, numbness, or difficulty moving the leg or foot
- Spondylolisthesis (a condition in which one vertebra slips forward over another one)
- Pregnancy
How is sciatica diagnosed?
In diagnosing sciatica, a doctor will take your medical history and perform an examination of the back, hips, and legs in order to test for strength, flexibility, sensation, and reflexes.
Other tests might include:
- X rays
- MRI scans
- CT scans
Nerve conduction studies are when an electrical current is passed through a nerve to determine the health or disease of that nerve and these are sometimes used.
How is sciatica treated?
Treatment for sciatica focuses on relieving pressure and inflammation. Typical sciatica treatments include:
- Medical treatments, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen, oral steroids.
- Epidural steroid injections where steroids, with their strong anti-inflammatory effects, are delivered at the origin of the inflamed sciatic nerve roots.
- Physical therapy usually starts after adequate pain control, and has an essential role both for the acute episode as well as long-term avoidance of further episodes.
- Surgery for sciatica might be warranted if the sciatic nerve pain is severe and your surgeon feels surgery is necessary. Patients should seek immediate medical attention if they have any symptoms of progressive lower extremity weakness, loss of bladder or bowel control.
Hip and Leg Pain
How Is Hip Pain And Leg Pain Treated?
Hip pain and leg pain can get better even if you do not know the cause. We offer injection and non-injection therapy to treat chronic hip pain and leg pain. Possible treatment options that your doctor may send you to us for include:
- Hip Joint Injection
- Greater Trochanteric Bursa Injection
- Lumbar Selective Nerve Root Injection
- Sacroiliac Joint Injection
- Priformis Injection
- Lumbar Sympathetic Blocks
- Trigger Point Injections
- Spinal Cord Stimulation
