The condition we call lumbar herniation or lumbar disc herniation starts with low back pain and causes pain spreading towards the leg on that side due to compression of the nerve root on the side of herniation. In lumbar hernia, at the beginning of the disease, first there is low back pain, and then with the progression of the disease, leg pain develops. The way the leg pain is seen is between which lumbar vertebrae the herniated disc appears. For example; If there is a herniated disc between the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, the pain usually spreads from the hip to the knee from the front of the leg, while if there is a herniated disc in the L5-S1 range, the pain spreads below the knee and towards the outside of the foot. Pain in lumbar hernia is accompanied by numbness, loss of strength and loss of reflexes. As with pain, these findings vary according to the intervertebral space (between which lumbar vertebrae) the hernia occurs.
As for our question, not every leg pain is of course a herniated disc. Some diseases can be confused with herniated disc by causing pain in the leg. When we look at these, sacroileitis (inflammatory diseases of the sacroiliac joint), arthrosis of the hip and knee joints, priformis syndrome (compression of the sciatic nerve in the hip by the piriformis muscle), facet syndrome (conditions due to the disease of the facet joints between the vertebrae in the waist), sciatic nerve or lumbar spinal cord Neuropathies of the nerves that protrude and travel towards the leg, stenosis in the spinal canal (spinal stenosis), lateral recess syndrome (compression of the nerves coming out of the waist at the entrance to the canal (foramen) on the side of the canal, not in the spinal canal) and spinal cord origin tumors, abscesses, inflammations are the most common causes of leg pain. are important reasons.
Pain from waist to leg or leg pain called sciatica can be recognized by first taking a good patient history and then a careful physical and neurological examination. There are some specific tests that are actually used in the diagnosis of some diseases that cause leg pain, which we mentioned above, and when these are done during the examination, the correct diagnosis is approached. Then, a definitive diagnosis is made with the desired laboratory and radiological examinations (such as direct x-ray, tomography and MRI), and leg pain originating from herniated disc is differentiated from other diseases. Sometimes two diseases may coexist (such as hip calcification and herniated disc); In these cases, whichever disease is more prominent should be treated first.
