Spine Related Leg Pain
In this blog series we are going to discuss all things ‘spine related leg pain’. We will look at the different conditions that can cause spine related leg pain, how we can differentiate between them, and how they are best managed.
Back Pain
Lower back pain is the most common musculoskeletal pain complaint, with 80-90% of the population experiencing a lower back pain episode in their lifetime. 20% of those will experience persistent pain, with 66% of sufferers experiencing a recurrence within the first year. People aged 40-69 are most likely to experience lower back pain.
60% of people who experience lower back pain will have symptoms of leg pain alongside back pain. Those experiencing leg pain tend to have a worse prognosis and higher symptom severity. In this series of blog posts I am going to dive into the different types of pain, and how we may be able to differentiate between the possible causes.
Types of Spine Related Leg Pain
Spine related leg pain can be classified into three areas:
- Somatic Referred Pain:
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- Dull, achy pain sensations.
- Hard to localise.
- Maybe disc or joint related. 1 in 4 cases of lower back pain are also related to other locations i.e. hip, buttock.
- Radicular Pain:
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- Localised Pain.
- Neuropathic symptoms i.e. shooting, burning, unprovoked.
- Pain in the leg tends to be more severe than low back symptoms.
- Radiculopathy:
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- This can often co-exist alongside radicular pain (‘painful radiculopathy’).
- People may experience sensory loss of the lower limb (numbness).
- They may experience a loss of reflexes in the lower limb.
- They may experience a loss of strength in the legs.
The brilliant physio Tom Jesson discusses these conditions in great details in his article HERE
This gives a brief outline of the three categories of spine related leg pain. In the next post I will dive deeper, firstly into somatic referred pain and how we can assess, diagnose and manage it.
Keep your eyes peels for the next post!
(Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik)
