Sciatica And Back Pain

Back pain and leg pain are commonly attributed to sciatic nerve, inasmuch as this condition has been named in medical terminology as sciatica, which is defined as a “pinched nerve in the back”, and the symptoms it creates are in the buttocks, lumbar spine, legs or feet. This has been disputed by experts, even as patients complain of wrong diagnoses. There appears to be confusion in attributing all the pain that appears in the back, leg and buttocks, to the sciatica nerve.

Sciatica has been recognized in medicine as a condition arising out of spinal nerve’s compression, leaving neuroforaminal opening between vertebral bones. Sciatica is also known as radiculopathy. If back/leg pains do not emanate from spine, doctors call this as pseudo-sciatica. Piriformis syndrome and sacroiliac joint pain are the two genres of pseudo-sciatica.

True sciatica pain emanates from spine, and the nerve thus affected has its roots being pinched by some spinal structural component, like ruptured and extruded disc, herniated disc, or an osteoarthritic bone spur. Though the above are said to cause pain, an examination of the body, would not suggest this, because a nerve root can be affected only when the whole of foraminal space is closed off, which is impossibility.

Normally, the nerve is never compressed. If it in fact compresses, it will not at all function, resulting in objective numbness, and not tingling sensations, weakness or subjective numbness that sciatica sufferers complain.

Therefore most of the diagnoses now refer to Pseudo-sciatica. Even here, let us remember sacroiliitis or sacroiliac joint disorder, and Piriformis syndrome are speculated conditions. SI joint or the piriformis muscles are strong parts in our body, which cannot be injured to cause so much pain. These conditions are usually used as scapegoats, to blame back pain.

When people suffering of Sciatica are told that their sciatic nerve is being pinched or compressed by something, they are only insulting the patient’s intelligence. This cannot be, because the sciatic nerve does not go into the spinal column directly. When the diagnostic experts point out at the spine as the cause for the back and leg pain, they are only exhibiting their cluelessness of the pain.

To illustrate this: Pain may result in the lower back, leg and buttocks, because of herniated disc. But the person may suffer from far wider pain, which cannot be attributed to a single herniation, and the nerve-root even remotely doesn’t cater to the areas where pain is felt. This is overlooked by majority of people, which is why sciatica treatment is unsuccessful.

Sciatica is known as a chronic condition which resists all treatments. Unfortunately medical practitioners themselves are clueless to correctly diagnose, resulting in patients’ money being wasted, on expensive surgical procedures at times.