Experimental New Treatment Showing Promise For Those Who Suffer From Sciatica

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There is potential new help for people who suffer with sciatica -- back and leg pain that can be debilitating. It's an experimental treatment for sciatica that's using a common medicine for blood pressure, but with a special twist.

Linda Triplett says, just walking to get to her granddaughter caused excruciating pain.

"There were days I couldn't get up, couldn't walk, couldn't get out of bed," Triplett said.

She was diagnosed with sciatica, a condition that millions suffer from that causes shooting pain down the leg.

"Sciatica is when you have inflammation of the nerves in your back," said Dr. Ali Rezai, of the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.

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Standard treatment includes rest, medication and sometimes opiates and physical therapy. In severe cases, treatments can include steroid injections or surgery.

A new option being tested is a micro-pellet the size of a grain of rice that's injected near the inflamed nerve in the spine.

It contains a medicine called clonidine that's slowly released as the pellet dissolves over time.

"It reduces the transmission of pain signals from the nerve to the brain," Dr. Rezai said.

Clonidine is blood pressure medicine that's being tested for a new use -- to reduce pain.

"To go in there and let someone put a needle in my back was pretty scary," Triplett said. "The numbing was a little bit pinchy.

"When you get that kind of pain, you're willing to try anything," she said. "I thought, 'this is gonna hurt, this is gonna hurt,' but it didn't."

Triplett says 30 days after getting the pellet, her pain was significantly reduced.

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Because it was a double-blind trial, Triplett doesn't know if she got the medicated pellet or a placebo. But she thinks she got the real thing.

"It's much better. I'm walking better. I'm getting around a lot better. I haven't taken any kind of pain medication," she said. "I'm doing my exercises everyday, trying to get back on my treadmill."

Three-hundred people in 20 medical centers are testing the micro-pellets. The treatment is now in the final phases of testing before seeking approval from the FDA.