Has anyone had 'trigger point' injections to alleviate sciatic pain? If so, did it relieve the pain? Thank you.

husband has had trigger points several times since surgery 2 1/2 years ago for sciatica. i ahve had them in my trapezius muscles that have helped the most with neck and shouldr pain even though i have severe neck and shoulder problems.

I have had several trigger pt shots as well. They were at not use to me. I think because of the pain coming from my disk. I finally wound up having a discogram done, and found out that most of my problem was coming from my L2 L4 and L5 disks. My surgeon then suggested a L2-L5 fusion with having the disk removed. Today, 19 months later, they are considering doing the proceedure all over again. Non fusion and now have a bulging disk at L5-S1. So I'm not very happy. Pain level is just as bad or worse than before surgery. They think because the screws seem to be lose and my spine is moving around. Anyway, hope the trigger pt shots work for you.

Tim

ICC, since you stil have pain, does that mean they worked or didn't work, and for how long?

Wigout: I am with you, they not only didn't work for me, but now I am in more pain than I was before the shots. I can't lay down, as my backside is so bruised from the shots, sitting hurts, and standing hurts.

Trigger point therapy has a 50/50 chance of working. Not good odds, and when they do work, they say that they can work anywhere from two hours to forever.

I would, if you were asking me personally, recommend, NO to trigger point injections.

Are you having active spasms? Have you tried muscle relaxants?

I was told that acupunture would not work for what I have. Then, as I was getting the TPs done, the doctor told me that they were doing exactly what acupunture does except with lidocaine instead of dry needles. I am so confused.

Find someone you can trust.

moonlight----none of us are the same. i had mine in my trapezius muscles. the pain i had before was not livable. it is now. i have a really bad neck that we're not sure what's going to be done about BUT the trigger point injections really helped the muscle spasms around it when nothing else put a dent in it.i have fibro so i think that's why they helped me. maybe my muscle pain was worse than the joint pain.

my husband had back surgery 2 years ago. it is as good as it will ever get. PM dr. every once in awhile gives him 6 trigger point injections around his lumbar area. keeps him going for quite awhile. like i said we are all different and alot had to do with each one's specific problems.

In my personal experience, if the trigger point injections caused an increase in symptoms than at least part of your problem is muscular. The problem is that you need a physician or therapist that really knows what they are doing because you have to hit all the trigger points that are causing the pain. There are 8 muscles that can have trigger points which can cause mid back pain (different ones for low back pain). Also, as a sidenote a lot of physicians inject anasthetic; however, the current research shows that dry needling is just as effective (of course it costs about a sixth of the price.) So ask for dry needling.

Of course, also in my experience manual trigger point release is just as effective as injections with the next day soreness. I recommend Clair Daives book highly. But other sites on the web now have some good info (added quite rcently actually). I would definitely recommend at least trying it manually yourself before doing anything surgical. Also, I would like to emphasize my opinion that if you are going to try it please be diligent an examine every muscle.

Please let me know if it this helps. Best of luck.

Oh and by the way. Sciatic pain can often be caused by trigger points in the pirformis or glutes. Try taking a tennis ball and using a wall press your glutes against it (in between your sit bone and thigh bone). If you find any spots that produce pain (especially a radiaiting pain) hold with good pressure for a minute. Also, if you do find this pain I would definitely urge you to get more information on this.

lucky**** i have done piriformous strecthes for years. have 4 bulged didks and some DDD in lumbar since first injury in '99. my back is livable because of the stretches. :)

Hello.... I have been having problems w/ my sciatic nerve as well. My problem is mainly from SI Joint Dysfunction. Anyway, my piriformis muscle was in constant spasm which put pressure on the nerve. I have had injections in my piriformis, glutes and in my SI joint as well as other locations. It did calm things down, but I ended up getting a nerve block as well. That made a big difference for me. If you don't have a disc problem that is causing the nerve pain it is most likely your piriformis muscle.

absolutely!!!! i had such a knot in the right piriformous muscle that it took a chiropractor first of all to tell me what it was and her massage girl spent weeks massaging tiger balm in it to loosen it. that's when i started doing the stretches everyday. even with the bulged disks and the DDD my back is tolerable all the time.