What are Sciatica Symptoms?

‘Sciatica’ or ‘a trapped nerve’ describes symptoms in one or both legs originating from the sciatic nerve or its nerve roots. Symptoms typically only affect one side and include:

• Tingling, numbness or pins and needles in your leg or foot
• Sharp searing or burning pain down the back or side of your leg, often worse when sitting and bending forwards
• Deep buttock pain
• Weakness in your leg, ankle or foot
• These leg symptoms may or may not be accompanied by lower back pain

What Causes Sciatica?

The sciatic nerve is one of the largest and most important nerves in your leg. It communicates information to and from your central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) to your leg and foot. It is part of the nervou system that controls your muscles, reflexes and how you experiencr sensation in your legs and feet.

The sciatic nerve has five nerve roots that connect the main nerve to the spinal cord. These are located between the spinal vertebrae. Individual nerve roots can be compressed by a disc herniation or prolapse, or from other age-related structural changes in the spine. Additionally, nerve roots can be chemically irritated by inflammation around the spinal joints.

Sciatica can also be caused by tight buttock muscles, specifically the deep lateral hip rotator muscles such as piriformis. The sciatic nerve passes under and even sometimes through piriformis which means piriformis tightness or spasm can compress the sciatic nerve, caussing sciatica symptoms listed above. This is commonly referred to as piriformis syndrome.

The NHS recommends manual therapy (which includes osteopathy) alongside exercise for treating Sciatica (NICE, 2020). An osteopath will conduct a thorough assessment to to work out what is causing your sciatica, the extent of any nerve compression and how best to treat it.

Osteopaths will usually work on the symptomatic areas. However, they will also look beyond to other areas of restriction or dysfunction which may be contributing to the problem. Read more about osteopathic treatment.

Osteopathy can help with most cases of sciatica. However, sometimes we may need to refer you to your GP for further tests or scans. This may be because symptoms are not improving or worsening, or to rule out any non-musculoskeletal cause for your symptoms.