If you pinch a nerve or one of the discs in your back herniates from a slip and fall accident, you could develop sciatica. Trauma from the accident can damage the spine and compress the sciatic nerve. This nerve branches off of the lower back and travels through the hips and buttocks and down the legs.

Symptoms of Sciatica after a Slip and Fall Accident

Although sciatica usually affects only one side of the body, depending on how you fell, you could develop sciatica on both the right and left sides. When you have sciatica, pain radiates along the path of the nerve, going from your lower back, across the hip and buttocks and down the back of the leg. The pain can be severe and can go all the way down to the calf. Damage to the sciatic nerve causes pain and inflammation. Your leg might feel numb.

Some people describe sciatica pain as a sharp or burning sensation. For others, the discomfort is a mild ache. If you cough or sneeze, you might feel a jolt or the sensation of an electrical shock. Your symptoms might worsen if you have to sit for a long time. You might have numbness and tingling in your leg or foot. Your leg muscles might be weak.

When to Obtain Medical Care for Possible Sciatica

If you have pain in your lower back, hip, buttock or the back or your leg after a slip and fall accident, you should see your doctor right away. If the pain is sudden or severe, you have trouble with bladder or bowel continence, or you have numbness or muscle weakness, get immediate medical attention. Untreated sciatica can cause permanent nerve damage.

Diabetes, increased age as well as prolonged sitting are linked or suspected of increasing a person’s risk for sciatica.

Possible Treatments for Sciatica from a Slip and Fall Accident

Depending on the severity of your injury and symptoms, your doctor might prescribe one or more of these treatments for sciatica:

Prescription Drugs

Muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatories, narcotic pain medication, tricyclic antidepressants, or anti-seizure medications.

Physical Therapy

After the acute pain stage of sciatica, therapy is used to rehabilitate your back, sciatic nerve, and muscles.

Corticosteroid injections

Injected near the nerve root to reduce inflammation and thereby lower your pain. You can only have a limited number of these injections, and they just last for a few months.

Surgery

Potentially the treatment of choice if your pain gets worse or does not get better using the other therapies, if you lose bladder or bowel control, or experience significant weakness. The surgeon will remove the piece of your spine that is compressing the nerve.

If you are experiencing symptoms of sciatica after a slip and fall accident, the personal injury lawyers at the Montero Law Center can help. Please call us at 1-954-767-6500 to schedule your free consultation.