Surgical Procedures
Sciatica is leg pain because of a pinched nerve. It can be agonising. Patients often describe the pain as like a bad toothache. We have had several patients over the years come into our office for their appointment and lie on the floor in the waiting room because of this type of pain.
If the majority of the pain is with leg pain the best operation to help you is a lumbar decompression and partial discectomy.
As far as spinal surgery goes this is a small(ish) operation but still has to be carefully considered and not to be taken lightly. Dr Moloney needs to remove the parts of disc material that are pressing on your nerve which is what is causing your leg pain. Once he removes the disc material that is causing the problem the nerve immediately starts to heal and the pain settles.
Most people get immediate relief following this surgery. Depending on how long the nerve has been compressed can affect how quickly it is able to heal. If Dr Moloney is able to operate quite quickly on a compressed nerve we find those patients recover a lot faster. If you are hoping it will go away and put up with it for a lot longer then it will take your nerve longer to recover after surgery.
Following any major surgery and especially spinal fusion it is important to follow the instructions given to you afterwards to get the best possible result. For more information see our After Surgery page.
