Sciatica simply means pain and/or pins and needles in the distribution of your sciatic nerve.
This term only describes where your symptoms are. Why do we use it? Because it helps to define the location of your pain, WITHOUT providing a scary diagnosis.
We specifically avoid the use of terms like “strained ligament, pulled muscle, spondylosis” etc. This is because there is very little agreement between clinicians on diagnosis AND providing these sorts of diagnostic labels tends to lead to worse long-term outcomes for people. It’s believed this is due to people worrying about the diagnosis.
And of course, if you get a different diagnosis from different clinicians, that can be worrying and confusing in itself.
Your AXB clinician MAY describe your sciatica as “non nerve compression” or “nerve compression” when it is appropriate to do so. Here is a little more detail on the difference>>
Your Functional Assessment is all you really need in order to build a plan for relief AND prevention.
Follow the other AXB guidance on rehab.
We adhere to lower back pain guidelines published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, are registered with the General Osteopathic Council and are members of The International Association for the Study of Pain.