So true “sciatica” must involve the back of the leg or foot. “Neuralgia” means pain in a specific area supplied by a particular nerve. So sciatic neuralgia means pain in the area supplied by the sciatic nerve, which is in essence, anywhere in the back of the leg or foot. These nerves supply the skin of most of the back of the leg and foot, as well as the muscles at the back of the thigh, and all of the muscles of the lower leg and foot. It is made up of a few nerves joined together as they come out of the spine in your lower back. The sciatic nerve is the largest and broadest nerve in the body. In order to accurately answer this question, we need to talk a bit of anatomy! Technically speaking, sciatica is defined as: “neuralgia along the course of the sciatic nerve” (1).īut what exactly does that mean to the average Joe? Read on to find out if what you’re experiencing can really can get a “sciatica” diagnosis, or whether it actually has another label instead. There is a lot of confusion out there about the term ‘sciatica’, with many people assuming they have it if they have pain anywhere from their lower back to any part of their leg. When we’re taking a case history, and the patient states that they have sciatica, we always take great care to have them define exactly where they are feeling the pain, as well as the type and intensity of the discomfort. Sciatica seems to have become a word used by many people to encompass many forms and locations of pain, when in fact, it actually has quite a strict definition and location of pain. However, after having more people than we care to mention tell us that they’re experiencing “sciatica”, when it is quite obvious to us right from the outset that they’re suffering something else, we thought we’d set the record straight. If what you’re experiencing truly is “sciatica”, we have to say- we feel for you, because a proper case can be truly agonising! But getting an accurate sciatica diagnosis is not always easy, and true sciatica is not as common as you may think.
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