Treatments

Between the vertebrae are discs where a herniated disc can occur.
The spine is made up of twenty-four vertebrae. The uppermost part is called the cervical spine and is followed by the thoracic spine and further down the lumbar spine. The vertebrae at the bottom of the pelvis form the sacrum and tailbone.


The discs are important for the mobility of the spine
Between the vertebrae are joints. The joints keep the spine connected but still mobile. They are held together by ligaments and short muscles. There are discs also located between the vertebrae, so-called intervertebral discs. They are important for the mobility of the back and at the same time function as shock absorbers. The core of the disc contains a soft mass, but the outer part is firmer.


When part of the soft mass in the disc pushes out through the outer, firmer part, it becomes a herniated disc. Then the disc bulges into the spinal canal. It can happen in the entire spine, but most commonly it happens in the lumbar spine and cervical spine.


Nerves can be affected
In the spine is the spinal cord with nerves to and from different places in the body. There are nerve pathways that are on their way to and from the brain. Between each pair of vertebrae, nerve roots exit from the spinal cord on either side. Each nerve root contains both nerve fibers that conduct information from the brain and spinal cord out to the body, and nerve fibers with sensory information from the body to the brain.


Magnetic camera examinations of the back of healthy people show that you can have a herniated disc without having any problems. But a herniated disc in the lower back can cause pain in the back and sometimes a nerve root pain that radiates down the leg, so-called sciatica. A herniated disc that presses on nerve roots in the cervical spine can cause radiating pain in the arms and sometimes pain in the neck.


The herniated disc can turn into sciatica
Sciatica means a nerve pain that radiates down the leg in the area of ​​the sciatic nerve. You can get sciatica if the nerve roots are affected by a herniated disc. Many times the back pain subsides when the sciatica pain starts.


The pain is usually caused by pressure against one of the nerve roots that form the sciatic nerve and an inflammation around this root. An affected nerve root often becomes swollen and causes pain as well as impaired sensation and muscle strength. When a nerve root is affected to send pain signals, the brain interprets it as pain in the area that the nerve leads to, i.e. in the leg.


The symptoms can vary greatly between different people, ranging from almost no symptoms at all to pain so bad that it becomes difficult to move. Then you may need hospital care. Sciatica often gets worse if you have the leg stretched and at the same time bend the body forward from the hip.


You can get sciatica from a herniated disc, but sciatica can also have other causes.