Low back pain or sciatica? lower back pain? radiating to the legs?
What is the difference between low back pain and sciatica?
It is necessary to know how to differentiate between low back pain and sciatica, since each one has different treatments.
Low back pain consists of pain in the lower back with or without irradiation down the leg (either anterior or posterior) to the knee and is usually caused by alteration of some of the structures found in this body fragment, such as ligaments of the lumbar spine, vertebrae, vertebral discs or musculature.
We speak of cyatalgia when the pain described above radiates to the legs, reaching the foot. In this case we would speak of damage to the nerve root coming from the lumbar spine, which carries sensory and motor information to the legs. It can radiate through the posterior part of the leg (the damage would be in the L4-L5-S1 vertebrae) or through the anterior part (L1-L2-L3), being in most cases the posterior part the most frequent.
Therefore, when we only present pain at lumbar level and irradiation up to the knee, we will have a low back pain, however, when we find pain radiating up to the feet, we will have a sciaatalgia.
Causes and symptoms of low back pain
The most frequent causes of low back pain are herniated discs, narrowing of the spinal canal, scoliosis or contractures in the lumbar musculature due to great efforts, bad posture or repetitive movements.
And among its symptoms we find local pain in the lumbar area that may radiate within the same region, to the opposite lumbar area or down the leg to the knee.
We found factors that aggravate this pathology such as physical or labor activities of great effort, obesity, inadequate posture or sedentary lifestyle.
Causes and symptoms of sciaatalgia
In sciatica, the most frequent cause is disc herniation, which consists of the exit of part of the intervertebral disc from its normal space, thus compressing the nerve root.
Symptoms of sciaatalgia consist of electrical pain in the form of cramping, whiplash or tingling. Sometimes the patient describes it ‘like having a bite in the painful area’. Radiation may reach the buttocks, knees, calves or feet and toes. The patient may also notice lack of strength or changes in leg sensation.
How can we improve these symptoms?
Referring to the conventional conventional treatment, to address this pathology we can make use of magnetotherapy, microwave, laser therapy and manual therapy.. All this in order to reduce inflammation in the nerve and/or other structures and relax the affected musculature.
It is important to know that the effects of magnetotherapy are long term, starting to be noticed around the 1st-2nd week of treatment if the pathology is not very serious or very chronic.
As for the advanced treatment we have the application of EPI with the aim of reducing inflammation around the nerve root and regenerating this area at the lumbar level. With the Neuromodulation Percutaneous Neuromodulation we will treat the pain and its irradiation in the form of tingling and cramping that extends to the leg treating different nerves that are responsible for providing sensitivity to the back or front of it.
We can also make use in this treatment of INDIBA to reduce muscle tension and help reduce inflammation at the nerve root level in the lumbar spine.
In conjunction with advanced treatment or in isolation, we can perform medical therapies which would consist in the performance of a nerve block which consists of pinching/blocking a nerve in order to alleviate the pain that radiates to the leg.
We can also use infiltration of corticoids just in the area of inflammation of the nerve root at its exit from the spine, in order to reduce the inflammation of the nerve.