For a back injury to cause back pain with radiation down the leg, it most often involves the nerve root being irritated by a slipped disc or bone spur.
Conservative management consists of bed rest in the initial period, medications for your pain (NSAIDs, muscle relaxants). Physiotherapy with stretching, massage, heat, ultrasound will help.
These methods will alleviate about 70-80% of pain associated with slipped disc. The remaining 20% will have persistent pain (enough to affect their daily lives) or even show signs of nerve damage (weakness, loss of reflexes and even persistent tingling). This last group of patients may need more invasive treatment.
These treatments include the use of steroid injections, disc modulation therapy (nucleoplasty), radiofrequency neurotomy and a small group will need surgery to remove the offending disc fragment or bone spurs.
