Sciatica is a set of symptoms including pain that may be caused by general compression and/or irritation of one of five spinal nerve roots that give rise to each sciatic nerve, or by compression or irritation of the left or right or both sciatic nerves. The pain is felt in the lower back, buttock, and/or various parts of the leg and foot. In addition to pain, which is sometimes severe, there may be numbness, muscular weakness, pins and needles or tingling and difficulty in moving or controlling the leg. Typically, the symptoms are only felt on one side of the body.

  Usually the pain starts as lower back pain and then moves to leg pain with or without any further radiation of symptoms into the foot.

Although it is a relatively common form of low back pain and leg pain, the true meaning of the term is often misunderstood. Sciatica is a set of symptoms rather than a diagnosis for what is irritating the root of the nerve, causing the pain.

This point is important, because treatment for sciatica or sciatic symptoms will often be different, depending upon the underlying cause of the symptoms.

It’s fare to say that most people will suffer low back pain in their life, infact 4out of 5 of us will. This is debilitating enough to modify or curtail working habits, but leg pain from Sciatica is much more disabling and often renders the individual incapable of working.

The cardinal sign that surgery is immediate and you must get attention as of yesterday, is when bladder control becomes lost or impaired!!