Many feel at least once that pain that radiates from the lower spine and reaches the feet. Nerve inflammation is a symptom. It talks about it in the insert on newsstands Thursday 2 December, free together with Corriere della Sera
We are publishing a preview of an article in the new Corriere Salute. You can read the full text on the issue at newsstands for free on Thursday 2 December or in Pdf on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera.
A pain in the lower back, localized to a specific point. Mild but insistent. It may subside with medication, but then it comes back. And as the days go by it increases, expands along the buttock, thigh, knee, calf. Sciatica a term that everyone knows and indicates the inflammation of the sciatic nerve, the longest and most voluminous in the human body, which starts from the lumbo-sacral area and branches down to the feet. There lumbosciatalgia (pain affecting the lumbar spine and radiating to one or both lower limbs) very widespread: it is estimated that the vast majority of employees have made at least one absence for this disorder. The patient-type an adult, aged 40 and over, but inflammation can also affect young sportsmen and the elderly.
Path
The pain follows the path of the sciatic nerve, which originates between the discs of the lower vertebrae (L4-L5-S1: fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae and first sacral vertebrae, ed) and passes behind the hip joint (basically in the center of the buttock), runs posterior to the thigh, leg and reaches the foot – clarifies Cesare Faldini, full professor at the University of Bologna and director of the first orthopedic clinic at the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute -. The lumbosciatalgia “cousin” of the low back pain, slightly less frequent, where the pain, always starting from the back, passes in the anterior part of the thigh up to the knee following the fibers of the femoral nerve. Both disorders can be confused with hip problems, because the pain in the groin region or in the buttock is very similar. For this reason it is always important to carry out a medical evaluation.
Three causes
In over a year and a half of the pandemic, between lockdowns, smart working and the closure of sports centers, many people have begun to have lower back pain, or a worsening of symptoms already present before. According to data published onEuropean Spine Journal the prolonged use of smart working did not increase objective back problems, such as a herniated disc, one of the causes of lumbosciatalgia – he says Pedro Berjano, head of the GSpine4 operating unit of the Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute in Milan -. But certainly the number of people he accuses has grown pains of various kinds, also due to muscle tension worsened by stress, inevitable in a pandemic period. It can happen, for example, that latent situations, up to that moment asymptomatic, appear suddenly. I am thinking, for example, of the cases of osteoarthritis of the spine. Inflammation of the sciatic nerve mainly depends on three causes: hernia, lumbar stenosis and spondylolisthesis. Then there are the pseudo sciatica (or sciatica sine materia), typical for example of those who drive often: these are generally muscular symptoms, which can be solved with physiotherapy and drugs.
You can continue reading the article on the Health Courier on newsstands for free on Thursday 2 December or in Pdf on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera.
November 30, 2021 (change November 30, 2021 | 19:05)
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