There’s a simple explanation for why a problem in your lower back can lead to leg pain — your spine is ground zero for most of your peripheral nervous system as 31 pairs of spinal nerve roots exit your spine and branch out to your entire body.
If something irritates one of these nerve roots, you can end up with pain that shoots down into your leg — a condition called lumbar radiculopathy that affects between 3% and 5% of the adult population.
When the source of your leg pain starts in your lower back, it makes sense that this is the area the group here at Texas Spine Consultants focuses on to relieve your symptoms. While Dr. Michael Hennessy, Dr. Chester Donnally, Dr. Heidi Lee, Dr. Andrew Park, and Dr. Robert Viere excel in spinal surgeries, that is far from our first stop when we tackle lumbar radiculopathy.
First, we try more conservative treatments, and spine injections top our list.
As we already described, leg pain that’s related to your lower back stems from nerve compression issues in your spine. Far and away, the most common cause of lumbar radiculopathy is a herniated disc.
When one of the discs in your lower back bulges, it can irritate nearby nerve roots and lead to symptoms in that immediate area, as well as symptoms that follow the path of the nerve into your buttocks and legs. A prime example of this is a condition called sciatica, in which a herniated disc presses up against your sciatic nerve.
While pain is one symptom that travels down into your legs, you can also experience:
In fact, more people experience numbness and tingling in their legs than they do pain.
Once we identify the nerve root that’s being compressed, we can target that area with an injection that contains an anesthetic as well as an anti-inflammatory steroid agent. The injection can provide immediate relief for the pain, while the steroid combats the inflammation that’s irritating the nerve.
Depending upon where the nerve compression is located, we have a few options, including:
We’ve found that these injections are great frontline treatments. They can suppress your symptoms so that you can take further steps to remedy the nerve compression, such as physical therapy (PT). In most cases, the injections, plus PT and patience, are often enough to get you back to moving without pain again.
To see whether a spine injection is a good solution for your leg pain, please contact one of our offices in Addison or Plano, Texas, to set up a consultation with one of our spine experts today.
