Because of the many conditions that can compress nerve roots and cause sciatica, treatment and symptoms often differ from patient to patient.
Diagnostic tests can come in the form of a series of examinations by a physician. Patients will be asked to adopt numerous positions and actions, such as squatting, walking on toes, bending forward and backward, rotating the spine, sitting, lying on the back and raising one leg at a time. Increased pain will occur during some of these activities.
If no improvement in symptoms has occurred in six weeks or ''red flags'' are present, imaging is appropriate. Imaging may include either CT or MRI.
Imaging methods such as MR neurography may help in diagnosis and treatment of sciatica. MR neurography has been shown to diagnose 95% of severe sciatica patients, while as few as 15% of sciatica sufferers in the general population are diagnosed with disc-related problems.
MR neurography is a modified MRI technique using MRI software to provide better pictures of the spinal nerves and the effect of compression on these nerves. MR neurography may help diagnose piriformis syndrome which is another cause of sciatica that does not involve disc herniation.
Further Reading
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article on
"Sciatica"
All material adapted used from Wikipedia is available under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Wikipedia® itself is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.