A sharp pain that starts in your lower back and travels down your leg can stop you fast.
Maybe it hits while you’re getting out of the car, walking through MSY, sitting in traffic on Causeway, or trying to keep up with kids, grandkids, summer travel, or a long day on your feet. However it starts, pain that runs from your back into your buttock, hip, thigh, calf, or foot is often more than a simple backache.
It may be sciatica.
At Orthopaedic Associates of New Orleans, Matthew Cutrer, MD, helps patients across Greater New Orleans and South Louisiana find answers for back pain, leg pain, nerve pain, and other chronic pain conditions. As an interventional pain medicine physician, Dr. Cutrer focuses on identifying the source of pain and helping patients move forward with practical, nonsurgical treatment options whenever possible.
What Is Sciatica?
Sciatica is commonly used to describe pain that travels along the path of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve runs from the lower back through the buttock and down the leg, which is why symptoms often feel like they are “shooting” or “running” down one side of the body.
Sciatica symptoms may include:
- Sharp, shooting pain down the leg
- Burning or electric-like pain
- Numbness or tingling
- Pain that worsens with sitting, standing, or walking
- Weakness in the leg or foot
- Lower back pain with pain into the buttock, hip, thigh, calf, or foot
“A lot of patients know something is different when the pain starts traveling,” says Dr. Cutrer. “A sore back is one thing. Pain that shoots down your leg, burns, tingles, or makes it hard to sit or walk deserves a closer look.”
Why Sciatica Happens
Sciatica usually happens when a nerve in the lower spine becomes irritated or compressed. That can happen for several reasons, including:
- Herniated or bulging discs
- Spinal stenosis
- Degenerative disc disease
- Arthritis in the spine
- Bone spurs
- Inflammation around a nerve
For many patients, the pain comes and goes at first. Then it starts showing up more often—during a commute, after yardwork, on a walk in the neighborhood, or after sitting through a long dinner or meeting.
In South Louisiana, August brings its own kind of stress on the body—late-summer heat, last-minute travel, back-to-school routines, long drives, and weekends spent trying to squeeze in one more trip before fall. For someone already dealing with nerve irritation, that extra activity can make symptoms harder to ignore.
“People around here stay busy,” says Dr. Cutrer. “Between work, family, travel, weekends on the water, and trying to beat the heat, it’s easy to push through pain longer than you should. My goal is to help people understand what’s causing it and what we can do about it.”
When It’s Time to See a Pain Management Doctor
Not every episode of leg pain requires a procedure or specialist visit. But if the pain keeps coming back or starts interfering with daily life, a pain management evaluation can help you avoid guessing.
Consider scheduling an appointment if you have:
- Pain shooting from your back into your leg
- Sciatica symptoms lasting more than a few days without improvement
- Numbness, tingling, or burning pain
- Pain that makes sitting, standing, or walking difficult
- Symptoms that flare during travel or long drives
- Pain that is disrupting sleep
- Back or leg pain that has not improved with medication, therapy, or rest
“The earlier we can evaluate the problem, the more options we usually have,” says Dr. Cutrer. “Pain management is not about jumping straight to an injection. It’s about figuring out what is driving the pain, then matching the treatment to the patient.”
Pain Management Is Not the Same as “Just Taking Pain Medicine”
Many patients hear “pain management” and assume it means medication only. Interventional pain management is different.
An interventional pain doctor uses a detailed evaluation, imaging when appropriate, and targeted treatment options to address the source of pain. For sciatica, that may include conservative care, physical therapy, medication management, image-guided injections, or other nonsurgical treatments.
For patients trying to avoid surgery—or trying to understand whether surgery is even necessary—pain management can be an important step.
“Most people who come see me are not looking for a dramatic answer,” says Dr. Cutrer. “They want to know what’s wrong, what their options are, and how to get back to normal life. That’s a reasonable goal, and that’s where we start.”
How Injections May Help Sciatica
For some patients, an epidural steroid injection may be recommended to help calm inflammation around an irritated spinal nerve. These injections are commonly used for certain types of lower back and leg pain, including pain related to herniated discs or spinal stenosis.
The goal is not to “mask” the problem. The goal is to reduce inflammation and pain enough for the patient to move better, participate in therapy, and return to normal activity with less discomfort.
“An injection is a tool,” says Dr. Cutrer. “For the right patient, it can be very helpful. But it works best when it’s part of a plan—not just a one-off attempt to quiet the pain.”
What to Expect at Your First Visit
A first visit with a pain management doctor usually starts with a conversation. Dr. Cutrer will ask where the pain starts, where it travels, what makes it worse, what helps, and how it is affecting your life.
Your evaluation may include:
- A review of your symptoms and medical history
- A physical exam focused on movement, strength, sensation, and nerve signs
- Review of prior imaging, if available
- Discussion of whether new imaging is needed
- A treatment plan based on your goals and diagnosis
For some patients, the next step may be physical therapy or medication changes. For others, an image-guided injection may be appropriate. The plan depends on what is causing the pain and how much it is limiting your daily life.
Don’t Ignore These Warning Signs
Most sciatica is not an emergency, but some symptoms need prompt medical attention.
Seek care right away if you experience:
- New or worsening leg weakness
- Loss of bladder or bowel control
- Numbness in the groin or saddle area
- Severe pain after a fall, accident, or injury
- Fever, chills, or unexplained weight loss with back pain
- Difficulty walking or maintaining balance
These symptoms can signal a more serious condition and should not be ignored.
Sciatica Care Close to Home in Greater New Orleans
If you live in the city, Southshore, Northshore, West Bank, Mandeville, Slidell, or elsewhere across the greater New Orleans area, you do not have to keep working around sciatic nerve pain.
OANO provides interventional pain management for sciatica, lower back pain, nerve pain, herniated discs, spinal stenosis, chronic pain, and other conditions that can make everyday life harder than it needs to be.
Get Answers Before Late-Summer Plans Get Harder
August is a good time to get ahead of pain—before back-to-school routines, late-summer travel, long drives, family visits, and outdoor plans make symptoms harder to manage.
If pain is shooting down your leg, keeping you from walking comfortably, disrupting your sleep, or making everyday movement harder, it may be time to talk with a pain management doctor.
Call 504-899-6391 or click here to schedule an appointment with Dr. Matthew Cutrer and the OANO interventional pain management team today.
