Non-surgical treatments for sciatica
The non-surgical sciatica treatments include using hot compressor, ice pack, drugs and epidural steroid injections. When a patient suffers from an acute sciatic pain, the immediate pain reliever that can be offered is applying ice pack over the painful and inflamed area. Both ice and heat can reduce pain to some extent and they are considered as the instant home sciatica remedies. They have to be applied for around 20 minutes for once in two hours. In most of the cases, ice is recommended first and some people find using heat more comfortable. Over the counter medicines like ibuprofen or naproxen, which are the anti-inflammatory drugs without steroids, are also prescribed by doctors for treating sciatica. In some cases even the oral steroids are prescribed which help in reducing the inflammation that causes the sciatic pain. Epidural steroids are directly injected onto the space around the inflamed sciatic nerve to reduce the pain as well as the inflammation. They offer temporary relief and it may not work out for every patient.
