To get the best treatment for sciatica, it is important to recognize and understand the symptoms. This will help you communicate with your doctor more effectively.
Physical therapy includes treatments that not only reduce pain, but help to prepare you for active therapeutic exercise.
The best treatment to help relieve sciatica depends on the cause! Often, spinal injections and/ or medications help to relieve sciatic pain known to cause low back and leg pain.
Tests may be necessary to help diagnose sciatica or piriformis syndrome. If the spine specialist suspects a herniated disc or lumbar spinal stenosis, he may order an MRI.
The piriformis muscle is a narrow muscle located deep in the buttocks. In most people, the sciatic nerve runs beneath it. Sciatica can occur if the piriformis muscle irritates the sciatic nerve.
Sciatica is the common term for mild to intense leg pain that starts in the low back. The technical medical term is radiculopathy, and it?s caused by an underlying low back disorder. Sciatica is considered a symptom of another condition.