Sciatica

Abstract

Low-back pain is a very common complaint encountered in the primary care setting. It is not unusual for patient’s to report pain or numbness and tingling, known as sciatica, in one leg that accompanies back pain. Only a small percentage of these are due to compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve by a lumbar disc prolapse (bulging of the cushion between the vertebrae of the spine); however, this is the most common cause of sciatica. Surgery is a necessity for a small minority of sciatica cases. Most resolve by conservative management; however, surgery may provide faster relief in acute sciatica cases and for those cases that have not resolved initially with conservative management. At this time there is no long-term data showing a surgery to be superior to conservative management.