musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders
Sciatica
Symptoms and Signs of Sciatica
In patients with sciatica, pain radiates along the course of the sciatic nerve (symptoms related to nerve roots L4, L5, and S1), most often down the buttocks and posterior aspect of the leg to below the knee. The pain is typically burning, lancinating, or stabbing. It may occur with or without low back pain. The Valsalva maneuver or coughing may worsen pain due to disk herniation. Patients may complain of numbness and sometimes weakness in the affected leg. Spinal Cord Compression can cause sensory, motor, or, the most objective finding, reflex deficits. L5-S1 disk herniation may affect the ankle jerk reflex; L3-L4 herniation may affect the knee jerk. Straight leg raising may cause pain that radiates down the leg when the leg is slowly raised above 60°and sometimes less. This finding is sensitive for sciatica; pain radiating down the affected leg when the contralateral leg is lifted (crossed straight leg raising) is more specific for sciatica. The straight leg raise test can be done while patients are seated with the hip joint flexed at 90°; the lower leg is slowly raised until the knee is fully extended. If sciatica is present, the pain in the spine (and often the radicular symptoms) occurs as the leg is extended. The slump test can also be done, similarly to the straight leg raise test, but with the patient "slumping" (with the thoracic and lumbar spines flexed) and the neck flexed. The slump test is more sensitive, but less specific, for disk herniation than the straight leg raise test. 