can sciatica nerve be cut

Reyne I have had just about every type of less invasive procedure done to get rid of sciatic pain without success, and also two major operations both which failed, but I must point out my pain was a result of a motorbike accident. Have you considered having a trial on a spinal stimulator, I have had mine now for a year and has cut the pain down considerably, I now am able to sleep, sit for longer and stand for longer, ask you GP or specialist whether this might be a option, the trial only goes for a week and if it works for you then you can go through with the final implant.
The trial does invade a little bit on your freedom as the leads come out through your skin to an external battery and control unit, but if it works and the final one is implanted everything is internal, charging is done through the skin the same with altering programs, I currently have 5 different programs to select depending on where and how bad the pain is, each was is adjustable by you depending how strong you want the pulses.
Just another option if nothing else works.

Don

HI Reyne,

You can check this out with your dr., but we need nerves to control muscles and other functions. If you cut or severely damage your sciatic nerve, you would probably have little or no function in your knee and foot. You would probably have profound weakness all down your leg. I will see if I can track down something about this.

Mary

How right you are there Mary, my sciatic nerve was permanently damaged after my first operation after a bony growth grew straight through it requiring a second operation to have it removed. The left leg muscle mass has wasted away, left ankle can no longer support itself which now has a splint to stop it drooping, lower half of my front leg has no feeling and left heel is over sensitive to touch.

Don

You are so right Don. I have just been doing a bit of research on this and, if by some chance a person''s sciatic nerve is severed in an accident, they try to repair it. There is also research going on to try to work out a way to repair damaged nerves elsewhere.

The short story is that nerves are needed for everything so no, unfortunately you can't cut your sciatic nerve. This also explains why those of us with neuropathic pain experience all kinds of weird spasms etc.

Mary

Just like the ones I get that take your legs away right from under you with no or little warning, the damage I have is on the left side, as time progresses it is now progressing to the right side, one damaged nerve has now over sensitised the whole nervous system.

Don

hi don,
had a look at 'spinal simulator' procedure. it seems 50 / 50 'for - against' & really quite invasive. given that i've just had gall bladder removed & melanoma's on face are going to be done in 3 weeks i figure that's quite enough ops. for me given i'm an ex nurse & a very bad patient. it was a question just not a very good one. looking for an easy way out to stop all this pain as some days i just feel like stepping of the planet. many thanks for all your input. reyne.

hi mary, many thanks for your response. i know the sciatic nerve is a major one & guess i never thought things through properly given that i've had this area worked on many years ago. sometimes the pain does the talking & as i said to don, not a good question. i'm so fed up with all the pain as are many others. i also have to contend with curvature of the spine, 90% so batting a bad average. hope you are travelling as good as possible. reyne

Reyne, i think many of us can understand the idea of the pain speaking for us instead of our more rational brain, its a kind of survival technique even if a problematic one! As you have realized, they will not severe a major nerve such as the sciatic nerve to control pain as it would effectively destroy your ability to control your leg or legs depending on wether your issue is with one branch or both, however, the sciatic nerve branches off like roots on a tree and if pain can be determnined to be on one particular branch that can be isolated, then they can do nerve blocks

as for the spinal stimulator being invasive, i guess any procedure is - i do not have a spinal stimulator but i do have an intrathecal medication pump that delivers spinal morphine and clonidine, i am on pump number 3 and had the first one placed back in 2001. given the fact these devices are not considered until there are few other viable options and pain has come to have a significant impact on ones ability to function, then i don't consider them overly invasive (if that makes sense)- i could not function before my pump was implanted and was able to get back to almost fultime empployment at one point after the pump- since then i developed MS and am not currently able to work. I have wondered baout a spinal stimulator which was considered and then rejected last time my pump needed replacing as my MS requires occasional MRI assessments and the stimulator means MRI is not possible. however i had a fall about 5 yrs ago and fractured 3 lumbar vertabrae, i now find that my pump control the pain reasonably well unless i try to lie down, then i get sever pain down my legs along the sciatic nerve so basically now i spend 24 hours a day in a seated position ( i am wheelchair dependent). IF they re considered the stimulator for this back pain i certainly would consider it as long term i am going to have more problems if i cannot change position, i certainly adds a dimension to discomfort. but at present they want to do an mri to check both the MS and also excactly what the lowert spine looks like, ( i have lost baldder function and bowel is getting worse and they cannot be sure wether its back or ms related) but i could not lie down for long enough to have the scan done unless i am anaesthetised- i guess i have seen the good results that fols have had from the stimulators if the trial shows they are candidates and i know how effective the pump has been, i see these as procedures that are worth the invasive nature due to the benefits gained given the severity of the problem in those that are considered possible candidates- i certainly do understand what its like to feel like life is once procedure after another and how its nice to have a break from all that if possible- i guess it depends how much the pain is impacting on life

Hello Reyne, I couldn't help but notice your question, and that you asked it over 4 months ago.
Yes it can be done. Or that is I have had it done twice a very long time ago. I'm not sure if they still do it, as I found out after I had mine done that a lot of doctors didn't approve of it.

My sciatic nerves were cut in the mid to late 1970's. I was in my mid to late 30's It was so long ago that I don't even remember the doctors name. My GP referred me to him. At the time I had gone to get out of bed and couldn't . I did eventually succeed by rolling on my stomach onto the floor, and pushing my way upright from that prone position. Then I made my way from my bedroom to the kitchen by leaning as much of my weight on the wall and opposite leg. When in the kitchen I had to get around by pushing my hands down onto the counter tops to get from one place to another. I was in incredible pain.

Lucky for me I got to see the specialist within a week. He told me he would cut the nerves in my back that lead to the sciatic nerve.
When I arrived at the day-hospital to have them done, they led me to a room with 4 beds, both men and women. It was a day procedure.
The doctor cut 6 of my nerves from 3 areas in my back. He used a scalpel, and with one incision reached two sides of the spine and cut two nerves, so all up he cut 6 nerves. He told me it could take a few days to know if it worked.
It didn't.

After I reported to him that I still had the same problem of that horrible shooting pain down my leg and under my foot, he said to go back to the same hospital, and he would cut all of the remaining 5 ( from memory) nerves. He said there was one nerve he could not cut as if he did I would not be able to walk again.
So I went back and had those 5 cut. This time it worked. Seriously it had to or I wouldn't have been able to walk upright again.

For anyone who lives in Perth they may know of the hospital this was done in. It was called Lucknow. It was on Stirling Hwy, near where that old plane is mounted in front of a building opposite a cathedral on a corner. Lucknow was an old hospital, the top floor back then was a mental institution.
When my doctor did my procedure, he also did the 3 other people in that room. He used to do them one day a week. I know one lady was having a nerve in her face cut. Another was having their back done like me. I don't remember what the other two had done. He of course used gloves, but I was a bit horrified by how he went from one of us to the other to do the procedure.

I think it was around 5 years after having my nerves cut that I saw a program on I think Channel 2, about how a doctor in Sydney or Melbourne was in trouble for something that I think was about the same procedure going wrong.
So if they do still do that procedure, I suggest you get not just a second opinion, but have the doctor checked out to make certain it's not something he isn't allowed to do.
My doctor didn't break any medical ruling by doing mine, it just wasn't something all doctors approved of.

It did work, I was so grateful that it did. Yet I often worry about the lack of nerves to those areas of my body, and what symptoms I might miss out on by having no feeling there. I have no idea just what nerves he cut as far as if they matter, I do know that one of my toes is numb, maybe it's just something like that.

If I had the same situation and had the same offer to do it again. Yes I would, after all I couldn't walk until it was done. Or that is I couldn't put any weight on my left leg.