Sciatica Is Not A Good Term

5-10% of low back pain sufferers develop severe leg pain at some stage in their lives. This is usually termed "sciatica" from the greek meaning 'hip pain'. Physiotherapists are often consulted and can be part of the symptomatic treatment of this distressing condition.

Leg pain is difficult to understand. The pain of sciatica is best referred to as nerve root pain or radicular pain. This implies the nerve root (near the disc) is compromised in some way and giving pain in a particular pattern down the leg. The commonest cause is a disc prolapse.

However, disc prolapses are very common and mostly don't give any trouble so it's hard to know if the one you are looking at on the MRI scan is causing the patient's problem.

Low back pain often generates referred pain which can be felt right down the leg, although it is usually aching and non-localised in nature in contrast to the severe, surging pain which every nerve root pain sufferer knows all too well. They can mostly tell you very accurately where the pain is.

Studies have shown that operation can make the leg pain settle down faster than conservative measures (medic speak for waiting) but that there is no difference to how people are two years after the onset of the leg pain.

Most people recover well from nerve root pain episodes but some go on to have longer term problems with their leg pain.

Whatever the outcome it is better to use the term nerve root pain and diagnose this problem accurately if there going to be better understanding of this unpleasant pain syndrome.