Sciatica

For a lay person:

Sciatica is pain that travels from the lower back or buttock down the back of the leg, caused by irritation or pressure on the sciatic nerve roots. It often comes with numbness, tingling or weakness in the leg or foot. It is most common in middle age and usually improves over weeks to months.

For a trained medical person:

Lumbosacral radiculopathy, most often from L4–S1 disc herniation compressing a nerve root, and less often from foraminal stenosis or spondylolisthesis. Diagnosis is clinical (dermatomal pain, positive straight-leg raise, neurological signs); MRI is reserved for red flags, progressive deficit or surgical planning. Management is staying active, analgesia and physiotherapy, with epidural steroid injection or discectomy for persistent disabling symptoms.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Wind-Cold-Damp; Damp-Heat; Qi Stagnation and Blood Stasis; Liver and Kidney Yin Deficiency; Qi and Blood Deficiency. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Get emergency care for sciatica with numbness around the groin or buttocks, loss of bladder or bowel control, or weakness in both legs, which may be cauda equina syndrome. See a doctor for progressive leg weakness or pain that does not improve.