Lower Back Pain Radiates To The Leg

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Lower back pain radiates to the leg

Back pain radiating to the leg is a typical manifestation of lumboishalgia. This disease is very serious and is accompanied by severe consequences, so it is not recommended to start it and self-medicate. Without the correct, complete course of treatment, the pain, as a rule, does not go away and only gets worse over time.

Causes of back pain radiating to the legs

Pain in the lumbar region, radiating to both legs or more often only to one, is a typical symptom of lumboishalgia, which develops after a sharp or unusually heavy physical exertion, as a result of hypothermia. The same symptomatology is characteristic of radiculitis caused by a congenital defect, osteochondrosis, or abnormalities in the development of the bone skeleton. The overgrowth of bone tissue leads to deformation of the adjacent tissues and causes a severe attack of pain. The impetus for the onset of the inflammatory process is the pathological damage to the nerve endings of the intervertebral hernia.

Clinical manifestations of lower back pain radiating to the legs

The clinical picture is characterized by diversity - pain can be weak or pronounced, aching, burning, squeezing, tearing or shooting. It occurs in most cases sharply, more often in one side, it is especially acute in the gluteal or hip region, then passes to the leg.

This condition can last for quite a long time, without treatment it will not go away by itself, the process will only worsen, accompanied by vegetative-vascular or neurodystrophic manifestations. As a result, the motor function of the limbs is impaired, and numbness is felt.

A sharp spasm of the muscles of the lower back leads to a limitation of motor function in the lumbar region and is classified as a muscular-tonic form. Numbness in combination with burning pain is typical of vegetative-vascular manifestations.

The appearance of the diseased limb differs from the healthy one; in the area of the foot it will look paler. If you touch it, it will be cold to the touch due to the increased vascular tone. The patient may feel hot or cold. Sharp pain prevents the patient from getting up. For neurodystrophy, burning pain that worsens at night is characteristic. Dystrophy phenomena in the form of skin thinning are very often observed.

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Lyumboishalgia often combines all forms of the disease. It can last for a very long time, in some cases even for years, alternating with periods of relapse and remission. Ishalgia is another disease of a neurological nature, according to the clinical picture it is very similar to lumboishalgia, the pain covers the buttocks and thigh, radiates to the ankle area.

Radiculitis of the lumbosacral spine is often a consequence of osteochondrosis, or it is preceded by attacks of lumbago, sciatica. Mechanical pressure of a prolapsed intervertebral disc on the nerve roots causes acute attacks of pain. Blood circulation is disturbed, edema appears and the inflammatory process begins.

Radicular pain is usually felt in the lower half of the back and has a dull, pronounced, aching, shooting, tearing character. A provoking factor can be lifting of weight, awkward movement, a sharp tilt or turn of the body, bruises.

An attack of pain begins unexpectedly sharply in one side of the lower back, very rarely on both sides at once, even less often in the buttock or in the area of the hip joint. As a rule, after about a week, the pain passes to the leg and it becomes difficult for the patient to straighten it. The patient tries to avoid stress on the affected limb and usually the leg is in a bent position, or laid forward or to the side.

In the supine position, the "fetus" posture helps to significantly reduce pain - lying on a healthy side, you need to press the diseased limb to the stomach. If the process involves both legs, you can help the patient by advising him to lie on his back, press his legs to the stomach. The sharp pain will prevent you from turning on your stomach.

Any careless movement, and when the process is running, any movement, cause unbearable pain. Sometimes patients have insomnia against the background of pain. Often there is a disorder of pain sensitivity, discomfort of a phantom nature appears in the legs.

Treatment of lower back pain radiating to the legs

As practice shows, pain in the lumbar region radiating to the leg often gives rise to relapses, so treatment must be followed strictly with the doctor's prescriptions. First aid is taking an anesthetic drug. But one should not forget that in order to remove the cause and avoid recurrence of the disease, one should immediately consult a specialist and undergo a full course of the recommended therapy. In addition, long-term use of chondroprotectors is indicated, which help to improve the health of joints, bones and spine.

Author of the article: Sokov Andrey Vladimirovich | Neurologist

Education: In 2005 completed an internship at the IM Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University and received a diploma in Neurology. In 2009, completed postgraduate studies in the specialty "Nervous diseases".