Sciatica treatment in Jordan

Sciatica is not a disease in itself but a description of pain that radiates from the lower back or buttock down the leg along the path of the sciatic nerve, sometimes reaching the foot and accompanied by numbness, pins and needles or weakness. It usually reflects pressure on or irritation of a nerve root in the lower back. The commonest source is herniated disc material, followed by narrowing of the nerve exit or the spinal canal, with less common causes including masses, infection and piriformis-related irritation. The first step is therefore diagnosis rather than treatment: identifying which nerve root is affected from the distribution of pain, the areas of numbness, the pattern of weakness and the reflexes, and excluding conditions that mimic sciatica, such as hip and sacroiliac joint pain, peripheral neuropathy in people with diabetes, and reduced arterial circulation in the leg. Most acute sciatica improves gradually with conservative care: staying active within the limits of pain rather than resting in bed, physiotherapy with targeted exercises and correction of movement and lifting mechanics, and medication prescribed by your doctor to control pain and inflammation or to settle nerve pain. When disabling pain persists despite this, an image-guided injection around the nerve root is considered, or surgery to remove the compressing portion of the disc. Surgery is brought forward when there is progressive neurological weakness. The limits should be stated plainly. Painkillers reduce pain but do not repair the source of compression. No exercise, traction device or machine puts a disc back in place in the literal sense, although many herniations do shrink on their own over time. An injection calms inflammation around the nerve but does not dissolve the herniation. Surgery treats leg pain caused by compression far better than it treats chronic back pain, and it does not prevent a new problem developing at another level. Two common myths need correcting: prolonged bed rest slows recovery rather than speeding it, and a disc herniation on an MRI report is not by itself a reason for surgery, since many people with no pain at all have herniations visible on imaging. The decision is built on matching symptoms to the clinical examination, not on the report alone.