Some therapeutic options in treating chronic sciatic pain

Abstract EN

Background : chronic back pain has become one of the most expensive causes of disability among people under the age of 45 years.

A wide variety of non-operative treatment options are advocated in the management of chronic sciatic pain (CSP) due to lumbar disc prolapse (LDP).

The most prevalent therapy for this pain is physical therapy.

Recently electro-acupuncture (EA) is an established adjuvant analgesic modality in the management of chronic pain.

Aim: In our study we tried to evaluate the efficacy of exercise therapy, low power laser therapy (LPL) and electro-acupuncture (EA) in the treatment of chronic sciatic pain due to lumbar disc prolapse.

Patients and Methods: 45 patients with chronic sciatic pain due to (LDP) were included in this study.

Their age ranged from 20 to 45 years.

They were divided into 3 groups: Group I (Exercise only), Group II (LPL + Exercise) and Group III (EA + Exercise).

The treatment program continued 3 months.

All patients were evaluated by taking full history, full clinical examination and investigated by plain X-ray and MRI.

They were assessed by VAS, Roland Disability Questionnaire (RDQ), Schooner's test, Finger Floor Test, Straight Leg Raising (SLR) test and Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score.

Results : our results demonstrated significant improvement in all parameters in the 3 studied groups with best improvement was in group III.

Conclusion : electro-acupuncture is an effective modality in controlling chronic sciatic pain and complications and may thus be used as a good alternative in indicated cases.