Sciatica

Sciatica refers to a group of symptoms which present themselves due to compression or irritation  of one or more of the nerve roots of the lumbar or sacral nerve roots.  A prolapsed disc or degenerated disc is the main issues that causes these symptoms. Patients can complain of many symptoms, mainly pain located in the back, buttocks or back of leg or all three places.

Patients can experience one or more of the following symptoms:  low back pain, buttock pain, leg pain in a dermatomal pattern, pins and needles, numbness, weakness in the leg or foot. Pain may radiate to above or below the knee.

Sciatica can be caused for many different reasons. Some include: disc prolapse, spinal stenosis, piriformis syndrome, pregnancy or tumor. Your chartered physiotherapist will conduct a thorough assessment and provide you with the appropriate exercises to help relieve your symptoms along with providing the appropriate hands on treatment. However, in cases where pain is very sever your physiotherapist will advice pain medication during your treatment programme. With sciatic related disc pain we use the McKenzie method as part of the overall physiotherapy treatment approach which is very effective method for reducing the prolapsed disc and therefore reducing the sciatic pain.

Patients can also present with a pain similar to sciatica that isn’t true sciatica. It must be noted that this type of pain is much easier to treat and very quick to respond to treatment because the pain is associated with muscle as opposed to nerve. We do recommend patients to book in with a physiotherapist at the clinic once they experience sciatic like pain. It may be much easier to relieve your pain than you may have expected!