Symptoms

Sciatica causes pain, a burning sensation, numbness, or tingling radiating from the lower back and upper buttock down the back of the thigh to the back of the leg. The result is lumbar pain, buttock pain, hip pain, and leg pain. Sometimes the sciatic pain radiates around the hip or buttock to feel like hip pain. While sciatica is often associated with lower back pain (lumbago), it can be present without low back pain. Severe sciatica can make walking difficult if not impossible. Sometimes the symptoms of sciatica are aggravated by walking or bending at the waist and relieved by lying down. The numbness and pain relief by changing positions can be partial or complete.

Diagnosis

Sciatica is diagnosed with a physical exam and medical history. The typical symptoms and certain examination maneuvers help the health care professional to diagnose sciatica. Sometimes, X-rays and other tests, such as CT scan, MRI scan, and electromyogram, are used to further define the exact causes of sciatica.

Causes

While sciatica is most commonly a result of a lumbar disc herniation directly pressing on the nerve, any cause of irritation or inflammation of the sciatic nerve can produce the symptoms of sciatica. This irritation of nerves as a result of an abnormal intervertebral disc is referred to as radiculopathy. Aside from a pinched nerve from a disc, other causes of sciatica include irritation of the nerve from adjacent bone, tumors, muscle, internal bleeding, infections in or around the lumbar spine, spondylolisthesis, injury, spinal stenosis, cauda equina syndrome, osteophyte, and other causes. Sometimes sciatica can occur because of irritation of the sciatic nerve during pregnancy.

Bed rest has been traditionally advocated for the treatment of acute sciatica

Depending on the precise cause of the sciatica and the duration of symptoms, the outlook for recovery from sciatica ranges from excellent to having long-term chronic symptoms.

Sciatica can be prevented to some extent by avoiding low back trauma injuries. Conditioning exercises, such as yoga and Pilates, can sometimes help to prevent injury to the low back.