What are the symptoms of sciatica?

Sciatica symptoms can include:

• Pain. Most people feel sciatica pain as burning or like an electric shock. This pain also often shoots or radiates down the leg on the affected side. Pain commonly happens with forward bending or lifting your legs upward when lying on your back.
• Tingling (pins and needles) and Numbness in legs. It happens because signals from your back or leg are having trouble reaching your brain.
• Muscle weakness. It means that muscle control signals are having interruptions in reaching their destinations in your back or legs from brain and spine.
• Bladder or bowel incontinence. It means signals that control your bladder and bowels aren’t reaching their destinations.

What are the risk factors for sciatica?

• Normal wear-and-tear
• Slipped discs
• Having excess weight or obesity
• Jobs with prolonged sitting
• Having diabetes
• Using tobacco and alcohol

How is sciatica diagnosed?

A healthcare provider can diagnose sciatica using a combination of methods. They’ll review your medical history and do a physical examination. Several tests can help with diagnosing sciatica and ruling out similar conditions. The most common tests include:

• X-rays of spine
• MRI scans.
• Nerve conduction velocity studies

Management and Treatment

There are several treatment options if you have sciatica that won’t go away or is more severe. Surgery might be an option if your case is severe or other treatments don’t help.

Conservative treatments

Conservative treatments are a step up from self-treatment. Your healthcare provider can offer these as options if your symptoms are severe enough to need more involved care.

Conservative treatments can involve similar treatments to self-care, but with your healthcare provider guiding you. They can also involve the following:

• Medications
• Physical therapy
• Spinal injections

Surgery options for sciatica

They may also recommend surgery if you have severe pain that prevents you from working or going about your usual routine, or if your symptoms don’t improve after 6 to 8 weeks of conservative treatment.

Surgery options to relieve sciatica include:

• Discectomy
• Laminectomy
• Spinal fixation