Sciatica is a very common condition that can impact on one's day-to-day life, often resulting in pain, numbness or tingling sensations that radiate along the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is also known as lumbar radiculopathy. At our physiotherapy clinic, we specialise in diagnosing and treating sciatica to help our patients regain mobility and alleviate discomfort effectively.

What causes sciatica?

Most often it is caused by a herniated lumbar disc, resulting in the nerve root being compressed by the disc.

Other causes include:

• Spondylolisthesis: altered alignment of the spine
• Lumbar stenosis: narrowing of spinal canal resulting in pressure on spinal cord and nerves nearby
• Foraminal stenosis: narrowing of space between vertebra, resulting in pressure on nerves
• Malignancy

Ultimately, all these causes result in compression on the nerve root which can result in inflammation and therefore increased pain.

Common symptoms:

• Radiating pain into legs
• Numbness extending to foot and toes
• Tingling around leg and foot depending on affected nerve

Physiotherapy solutions:

1. Self management techniques:

• Hot or cold packs
• Avoiding prolonged sitting/standing
• Changing positing every hour where possible
• Adopting safe lifting techniques
• Adopting good postures



    2. Physiotherapy techniques:

Research indicates that exercise is the best form of managing sciatica. However, used in conjunction with other manual therapy techniques can provide temporary pain relief.

• Spinal manual therapy
• Soft tissue techniques including massage
• Exercise: this can include strengthening, gentle stretching, nerve mobilisation and light exercise

Generally, the advice for patients with sciatica is to stay active. Therefore, having a consultation with one of our physiotherapists to develop a individually tailored exercise program can assist in overcoming your symptoms. Click here to book an appointment now.

References:

Ostelo, R. W. (2020). Physiotherapy management of sciatica. Journal of physiotherapy, 66(2), 83-88.