Sciatica

What is sciatica?

Sciatica describes pain which runs from your lower back, down through the buttock, hamstrings and into the lower leg.
Sciatica is commonly misdiagnosed and used to describe all types of back pain. Leg pain can have various sources. Pain down your leg may be referred from muscle, joint or nerve.

What causes sciatica?

• Poor lifting technique
• Poor posture
• Disc rupture or herniation
• Locked joints
• Other nerve compression outside the spine (i.e. bone growths, muscle spasm or inflammation of the nerve).

Signs and symptoms

• Unable to bend forward
• Loss of movement
• Muscle spasm
• Shooting pain down your leg
• Pain location – Midline, bilateral or unilateral
• Local or referred pain
• May have nerve root involvement
• Pins, needles and numbness
• Weakness.

Treatment

Decrease mechanical strain on disc if involved

Specific physiotherapy techniques:

• Manual therapy:
  • Joint Mobilisations
  • Soft tissue massage
• Therapeutic exercise:
  • Mobility
  • Muscle retraining (i.e. stabilising exercises)
  • Extension exercises

Address contributing factors:

• Correct posture
• Improve physical fitness
• Encourage a variety of movement
• Ergonomic advice (i.e. workplace set-up, e.g. lumbar roll, computer height etc)

Encourage normal activity and work.