L4-5 Sciatica

In this video, Dr. Castanet will show you this 50 year old gentleman’s MRI with a herniated disc at L4-5 on the left side. This gentleman came to me for evaluation and did two treatments, but lived too far to continue to come to me. Rarely, two treatments will resolve a patient’s problem. But some patients, for a variety of reasons, just will not, or cannot make the time for treatment. Also, rarely, a patient may need 20-30 treatments to resolve their problem. Of course, a patient who needs that many treatments is not continuing if it’s not helping. It just means that he/she is improving more slowly than desired. Nonetheless, if a particular patient cannot or will not be patient with treatment, then I’m happy to discuss and refer them for other options that may be quicker, e.g. injections, or surgery. In fact, there are times when I see a patient, and they’ve been dealing with pain for many months or years, and I can tell they’re at “the end of their rope”. And if I think they have a potentially surgical problem, and it may take me too long to help them, I might encourage them to just go ahead and get surgery.

Among the things I’ll show you on this MRI scan are degenerated discs, disc collapse, end-plate degeneration, Modic changes, multifidus muscle atrophy, a disc herniation at L4-5, intravertebral disc herniations, nerve roots, and more.

L4-5 Sciatica

In terms of treatment, in my experience, spinal decompression treatment is the most effective non-surgical treatment for neck and back pain, herniated discs, joint pain, sciatica, pinched nerves, shoulder pain, thoracic pain, arm pain, and any pain arising from the spine. I only need to refer about 5% of patients for injections, and many of the patients that I help, tried and failed to improve from injections.

If I can help you with your neck or back pain, please call me at 404-558-4015.