Leg Pain

Many patients develop leg pain due to trauma, injury, or overexertion. While this type of pain often resolves over time, it can develop into an ongoing, chronic pain that affects your ability to move.

If your leg pain recurs and isn’t the result of an injury, it may be caused by an underlying condition such as:

• Degenerative disease, such as arthritis
• Nerve damage
• Bone infection
• Deep vein thrombosis
• Peripheral artery disease
• Bone tumor

Sciatica refers to pain that begins in your lower spine where the sciatic nerve is pinched or damaged. The pain caused by the nerve compression follows the path of the nerve, which goes from the spine through your buttock and down your leg. As a result, you experience leg pain that can be excruciating.

Your Physician at FX spine & Performance Center is a  specialists in interventional pain management, which means they have a variety of treatments to alleviate leg pain, especially when the source is a damaged nerve. They also provide physical therapy and rehabilitation to improve movement and diminish pain. Physical therapy is often part of your treatment after medical options relieve pain enough that you can engage in activity.

Your doctor may recommend one of the following treatments for leg pain that’s caused by nerve compression or damage in the spinal cord:

Lumbar epidural injection

Steroid medication is injected into the epidural space of the lumbar spine or lower back. Pain is diminished as steroids reduce inflammation and swelling.

Lumbar transforaminal epidural injection

Steroid medication is injected into the epidural space of your spine, but it’s specifically placed in an area where it directly targets the specific nerve root responsible for your leg pain.

Lumbar sympathetic block

Using fluoroscopic X-ray to guide needle placement, your Physician at FX Spine & Performance Center injects a mixture of local anesthetic and anti-inflammatory medication near nerves responsible for your leg pain. This procedure, which is often used for leg pain caused by complex regional pain syndrome, provides immediate and long-term relief from leg pain.

You may be a candidate for spinal cord stimulation if your leg pain is severe and doesn’t respond to other conservative treatments. Your Physician at FX Spine & Performance Center inserts a wire lead into the space alongside your spine, near the nerves causing your leg pain.

The wire is connected to a medical device, a spinal cord stimulator, that transmits mild electrical signals to nerves in the spine. The electrical stimulation stops nerves from sending pain signals to your brain. As a result, your pain is significantly relieved.