With from 10% to 40% of people reporting sciatica sometime during their lives, it’s safe to say that the problem is common, affecting millions of Americans each year.
In reality, sciatica is more of a side effect of lower back issues — typically a herniated disc that presses against your sciatic nerve, but not always. In some cases, your symptoms may be tied to a lesser known syndrome, piriformis.
As experts in spine health, the team at World Medical Group dba Neuropathy & Pain Centers of Texas has no small amount of experience helping patients to navigate back pain and the issues that lead to sciatica. And it’s not uncommon for us to find piriformis syndrome, which affects about 2.4 million Americans annually.
Let’s start this discussion with a little bit of information about your sciatic nerve, the largest nerve in the human body. This nerve is formed from spinal nerve roots in your lower back that come together to form one large nerve that separates and travels down each of your legs, all the way to your feet.
When you develop symptoms of sciatica, it means that something — often, but not always, a disc — is pressing against the nerve in your lower back, which can lead to local pain, as well as symptoms that travel down the nerve and into one side of your lower limbs. These symptoms include the aforementioned pain, as well numbness, tingling, and muscle weakness.
The other road to sciatica symptoms stems not from disc problems, but an issue in the piriformis muscles in your buttocks. These muscles extend from your lower spine and connect to the top of your thigh bone. They also run across your sciatic nerve, which is where problems can start.
If you have inflammation, a muscle spasm, or scar tissue in one of your piriformis muscles, the nearby sciatic nerve can be affected, leading to symptoms such as:
Unlike sciatica, which can travel all the way down to your foot, the symptoms of piriformis syndrome tend to stay in your buttocks, hip, and upper leg. These symptoms have a tendency to flare if you sit for long periods or when you climb stairs or hills. Motion can also make piriformis syndrome act up.
There’s good news when it comes to piriformis syndrome — it typically resolves itself within a few days, or a few weeks for tough cases. The bad news is that it can recur if you don’t address the problem properly the first time you’re affected.
For example, if you have tight muscles around your hips and you don’t do stretching exercises, piriformis syndrome can become an ongoing problem.
This is why it’s important to come see us for a definitive diagnosis so that we can identify whether you’re dealing with disc-related sciatica or piriformis syndrome. The treatments for each are different, which is why diagnosis is important. Once we know what you’re up against, we can make sure you’re on the correct treatment path going forward.
So, to make sure you’re heading down the right road in managing your lower back and lower extremity pain, call or message one of our offices in Waco, Arlington, Wichita Falls, or Fort Worth, Texas, today, to schedule an appointment.
