Sciatica

Sciatica is a symptom. It is described as pain that moves from the low back into the hip, buttock, thigh, calf and foot. Sciatica is called radicular pain in medical terminology. Radicular pain occurs when a nerve becomes irritated. This may be due to a variety of problems but the most well-known cause is an intervertebral disc that has ‘pinched’ or compressed the nerve.

Symptoms

Sciatica can cause pain to travel from the low back into the gluteal (bum and hip) region, down the thigh and leg and into the foot. It can start in the hip with no low back pain. There is usually a great deal of discomfort associated with sciatica however the pain can vary with some patients only reporting tightness or tingling rather than pain. Pain can vary from dull, sharp, electricity, burning (causalgia) or ants crawling on the skin (formication).

Treatment

The treatment of sciatica is based on its underlying cause. Sciatica is a symptom. If sciatica is caused by a disc herniation the treatment will be directed at this for example. Chiropractic treatments are important in the treatment and recovery of sciatica.

The following conditions are common causes of low back pain.

• Lumbar myelopathy
• Cauda equina syndrome
• Lumbar spinal stenosis
• Bone Spurs
• Degenerative disc disease (DDD)
• Pinched nerve
• Lumbar radiculopathy
• Lumbar facet joint pain
• Bulging Disc
• Herniated Disc
• Disc protrusion
• Discogenic pain
• Post laminectomy syndrome
• Coccydynia
• Spondylolisthesis
• Spondyloarthropathy
• Ankylosing spondylitis
• Reiter’s syndrome
• Psoriatic arthritis
• Enteropathic arthritis
• Sacroiliac disorders
• Foot drop
• Spinal neurofibroma
• Acute low pain
• Chronic low back pain
• Stiff low back
• Trigger points in the low back
• Red flags for low back pain
• Internal disc disruption
• Lumbar spondylosis
• Lumbar facet syndrome
• Lumbar foraminal stenosis
• Lumbar disc herniation
• Lumbar osteoarthritis
• Lumbar osteophytes