Complications of Sciatica - Health Channel

Blog

Complications of Sciatica |

Loss of feeling in affected leg, weakness in affected leg, and loss of bowel or bladder function are some of the complications of sciatica.

Dr. Jose Mena, Interventional Spine Specialist with Miami Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute, says numbness and tingling are not the main concern of doctors, but it is weakness. “If you’re dragging your foot that can become a permanent issue and those are things that we want to be more prompt into taking care of that, and most of the time might become surgical.”

Transcript

So let’s talk about a few of the complications and there are complications from this and I guess the biggest thing is if you’re having a shooting pain down the leg of course that we’re gonna you were gonna lose part of the feeling in the leg. Now how long does that last or can it last. > It varies it can be from nothing for a couple minutes or it can be completely indefinite. So it depends on that on the episode and most of the time the main thing that triggers – for patients to seek medical appointment will be if you’re having some the pain. However some people may also have some numbness, some tingling, which also be associated along with the symptoms of sciatica, our main concern is not the numbness tingling or the pain, actually our main concern is that the last two they’re in the list which is the weakness. So if you’re dragging your foot that can become more of a permanent issue and those are things that we want to be more prompt into taking care of that, and most of the time might become surgical and about loss of bowel bladder will be if the if you have a significant discrimination or compression of the nerve structures that can be detrimental and that can cause you losing your bowel bladder. > How does it work because that’s not something that I would consider right away bladder and bowel symptoms > Okay very is very simple. So depending on the level that you have your herniation you might have specific distribution going on down the legs, but the the nerve that are that are running down to the to the bowel and bladder are called the s nerves they’re sacral nerves. So those nerve are running through the cervical thoracic lumbar spine and sacrum, so if you have a compression in your lumbar spine those nerve whatever is below that level is gonna get compressed. So those are the last nerves that they get compressed so that’s if you have any bowel bladder problems you have already a significant amount of compression. So whatever nerve are affected we’ll give you an example if you have the an l3 for discrimination so the l4, the l5, the s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, who get affected, but the last one will get affected we the s5, so if they have bowel bladder that means that all those nerve were already injured.

DISCLAIMER: The information and opinions expressed in the programs on this channel and website are intended to address specific questions asked or situations described in each particular program, are for educational purposes only, and are not designed to constitute advice or recommendations as to any disease, ailment, or physical condition. You should not act or rely upon any information contained in these programs without seeking the advice of your personal physician or a qualified medical provider. If you have any questions about the information or opinions expressed, please contact your doctor or other medical professional.