What is sciatica?

Sciatica: Sciatic is a condtion of pain arising from pressure or irritation or inflammation of the sciatic nerve as it courses from the lumbar spine down to the lower leg and foot.

Lumbar radiculopathy: You have 5 lumbar vertebrae connected to the sacrum. Between each two vertebrae there is a foramen, or hole, bilaterally where the nerves to the legs leave the spinal canal. Spine arthritis, and degenerative disk disease can cause bone or ligaments to encroach on these spinal nerves either inside the spine or in the foramina causing shooting pain, leg numbness, leg weakness.

Leg pain : Sciatica is a symptom from compression of one or more nerves in the lumbar spine that causes severe buttock and leg pain often associated with numbness and tingling. Although theist common cause comes from your low back, it can come from any compression of the nerve along its course from your back to your foot.

Shooting pain: A herniated disc can cause back pain as well as foot pain by physically pressing on the nerves that travel to the foot and by irritating them through the extrusion of pro-inflammatory disc materials. Typical symptoms include back pain and shooting, electrical pain going down one or both legs.

Back ; Leg Pain: Sciatica is pain in the distribution of the leg as a result of an irritated nerve or facet joints or other injury typically in the lumbar spine (low back) which are caused by herniated disks, spinal stenosis or degenerative disc disease, etc requiring further evaluation by a spine specialist and may be candidate for facet injections/radiofrequency ablation and epidural steroid injection.