Pain radiating to the right leg and buttock is a rather serious symptom that may indicate several diseases at once. As a rule, pain appears gradually, moving from the lower back to the leg. Such problems with the lumbar spine are treated by a vertebrologist, neurologist, and osteopath.
If a patient at any age has such pain, you should immediately contact Dr. Ignatiev’s Kyiv Clinic for advice and qualified medical care. Appointments with spine specialists and neurologists are by appointment only.
Diseases with symptoms of pain in the lumbar region most often affect people engaged in heavy physical labor, as well as those who have a predisposition to this (genetic and due to sedentary work).
The pain that appears on the right side quickly changes its location, moving closer to the buttocks. After a short period of time, the right leg begins to hurt. If you do not treat the pain syndrome , pretty soon it will be impossible to stand on your leg, so the patient begins to limp in order to protect himself from pain. As a result, the patient has to walk on bent legs, while sticking his right leg forward and to the side.
If this cannot be done immediately, you need to take the fetal position, lying on your healthy left side, and take painkillers while waiting for the doctor.
In addition to the other reasons listed, pain in the lower back and left leg can be caused by a number of other factors, which include long-standing injuries or hypothermia. osteochondrosis and other curvatures of the spine, as well as hernia and rupture of the fibrous ring of the spine may be to blame Therefore, in order to exclude all possible options, it is necessary to conduct differentiated diagnostics. It will allow you to establish an accurate diagnosis in a short period of time and begin timely treatment.
In order to receive high-quality medical care, you should sign up at Dr. Ignatiev’s clinic in Kiev . Its specialists use both conservative and progressive methods of treating spinal diseases and related ailments.
When a person complains of lower back pain radiating to the leg, the reasons can be very different. Low back pain is not a disease, but a clinical symptom. This condition may be associated with dysfunction of the back muscles, diseases of the spine, or neurological disorders. Most often, back pain occurs in older people and people over 35 years of age. What are the causes of back pain?
So, let's try to figure out why your back hurts. The main causes of lower back pain are:
Often the pain radiates to the right leg or left. At the same time, patients have a pulling limb. The pain can be sharp or dull, depending on the underlying disease. Nagging pain in the lower back may be the only symptom or combined with others.
A disease such as lumbar osteochondrosis is often diagnosed. This pathology is characterized by damage to the intervertebral discs. The main causes of the disease are:
Lumbar osteochondrosis can manifest itself with the following syndromes: lumbar ischialgia, lumbodynia, radiculitis, radiculoischemia. Lumbodynia is an aching pain of a chronic or subacute nature. It bothers a person during physical exertion and during prolonged stay in an uncomfortable position.
The appearance of acute pain in the lumbar region, which can radiate to the right or left leg, indicates the presence of lumboischialgia. The occurrence of pain is caused by irritation of the nerves. Other signs of the disease are: limited mobility of the back, difficulty in bending and straightening it, impaired sensitivity on the left or right in the buttocks or thighs, increased sweating.
The severity of symptoms depends on the stage of osteochondrosis. The disease occurs with periods of remission and exacerbation.
If your lower back aches, the cause may lie in a lumbar disc hernia. This pathology is very common at a young age. A hernia is a protrusion of the nucleus pulposus in the vertebral area due to a rupture of the fibrous ring of the disc. This condition leads to injury to the surrounding soft tissues, narrowing of the spinal canal and compression of the nerve roots.
Predisposing factors for the development of a vertebral hernia are: trauma, spinal surgery, obesity, prolonged sitting, poor posture, and heavy physical labor. The main symptom of the disease is constant pain. Such people have lower back pain.
The severity of pain depends on the size of the hernia. Pain may be felt in the leg (left or right). Less commonly, discomfort occurs on the front or back of the thigh. Sometimes with a hernia, the sacrum hurts, muscle weakness is observed in the lower extremities, and the toes go numb. In severe cases, the function of the pelvic organs may be impaired.
For lower back pain radiating to the leg, the cause may be inflammation of the sciatic nerve. This condition is called sciatica. The sciatic nerve is a pair. It starts in the lower back and goes down to the toes. This nerve innervates the lower limbs. Inflammation can be triggered by the following factors:
The main manifestation of a pinched sciatic nerve is pain. At the same time, the lower back hurts, radiating to the leg. Pain can be felt in the buttock area, on the back of the thigh, in the bend of the knee. Sometimes the lower abdomen hurts on the right or left. The nerve runs along the back of the legs, so that's where the pain is felt. It can be sharp, sharp, burning or shooting.
If a nerve is pinched in the left leg, pain is felt on the left. If on the right leg - on the right. The pain syndrome is chronic. It bothers a person periodically. Most often, only one nerve (left or right) becomes inflamed. Other signs of the disease include: impaired sensitivity of the foot and the outer surface of the leg, difficulty bending the leg at the knee, muscle atrophy, pale and dry skin, increased sweating.
If the lower back hurts, radiates to the leg, or there is weakness in the lower extremities, this may indicate spondylolisthesis. This condition is characterized by forward displacement of the lumbar vertebra. This pathology often develops against the background of spondylolysis. The disease occurs in both children and adults.
In childhood, displacement is facilitated by playing sports (football, gymnastics). The main symptom is chronic pain. In such patients, there is no pulling in the lower abdomen on the right. The pain is localized at the back. Often it radiates to the left or right leg.
The pain syndrome may intensify with lumbar extension.
Not all patients have clearly defined symptoms. This pathology can only be detected with the help of instrumental research.
If a person has lower back pain that radiates to the leg, he needs to see a doctor. Immediately before eliminating the pain syndrome, the exact cause of its occurrence should be established. Diagnostics includes:
During the survey, the main characteristics of pain are determined: intensity, duration, nature, change depending on body position, localization, combination with other symptoms. If there is severe pain in the lower abdomen on the right, it is necessary to exclude diseases of the abdominal organs. During the examination, attention is paid to the condition of the muscles, posture, color and temperature of the skin in the lumbar and hip areas.
Treatment is prescribed depending on the underlying disease. If your legs and lower back hurt due to spondylolisthesis, treatment can be conservative or surgical. It includes physical rest, massage, physiotherapy, the use of painkillers from the NSAID group (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), and wearing a corset. For severe pain, Cortisone can be used. It is inserted into the spinal canal (epidural).
Physical therapy plays an important role in treatment. In case of severe disease, surgical treatment is organized. If pinched and inflammation of the sciatic nerve is diagnosed, therapy involves acupuncture, massage, the use of medications in the form of tablets, ointments and gels, physical therapy and physiotherapy.
Medicines prescribed include NSAIDs (Analgin, Baralgin, Pentalgin, Voltaren, Diclofenac, Movalis), distractive drugs, and anesthetics in the form of injections. Physiotherapeutic methods include UHF therapy, magnetic therapy, and electrophoresis.
If an intervertebral hernia is detected, drug treatment is first carried out. If it is ineffective, surgery is performed. For this purpose, microsurgical, endoscopic and laser operations are used. Treatment of osteochondrosis involves the use of various ointments (Capsicam), gymnastics, massage, and physiotherapy.
Chondroprotectors are used to strengthen cartilage tissue. To eliminate lower back pain, regardless of the cause, the following ointments can be used: Dolobene, Finalgel, Piroxicam, Diclovit, Nimulid, Nise, Fastum gel.
Thus, lower back pain can be a symptom of various diseases.
Pain in the lower back and back, radiating to the leg, very often bothers people, especially after 35 years. Since childhood, the modern rhythm forces a person to lead an incorrect lifestyle, unevenly loading the spine all day long. In a constant sitting and standing position, the spinal muscles are always tense and cannot relax. After this, many people overexert themselves in the gym. As a result, after the appearance of back pain that radiates to the limbs, people cannot understand the etiology of its occurrence, and do not understand which doctor to contact - an orthopedist, neurologist, gastroenterologist, gynecologist or osteopath.
Lower back pain radiates to the upper part of the leg - this is a typical prolapse syndrome or protrusion of a lumbar hernia. Similar pain in the sacral region occurs with tumors of the sacral plexus and spinal cord. Bursitis of the gluteal muscles cannot be excluded, which can be confirmed by sweating disorders, or vasculitis-neuropathy of the sciatic nerve, which is ischemic in nature.
A dull ache in the lower back, back, or back of the leg. Neuropathy is quite likely - piriformis syndrome, when the sciatic nerve is pinched and inflamed. The pain is usually located in the piriformis muscle, where the nerve exits, and is localized along the entire back of the thigh to the foot. If the sciatic nerve is compressed due to severe decompression, atrophy of the buttock area may develop.
Back pain radiating to the side of the leg. Stripe-like pain may be a consequence of an intervertebral hernia affecting the upper roots of the lumbar spine. Manifested by weakness of the thigh muscles, acute lumbago. In pathologies of the hip joint, it is accompanied by pseudoradicular irradiation. Burning pain on the side of the thigh is caused by external cutaneous femoral nerve tunnel syndrome.
The pain radiates to the front of the thigh or leg. May be a consequence of damage to the femoral nerve, which occurs after lower abdominal surgery or hernia removal. Damage may be accompanied by sensory dysfunction, weakness of the thigh muscles, and loss of the knee reflex. Severe spinal pain radiating to the leg can appear along with atrophy of the thigh muscles, observed during treatment with anticoagulants due to the accumulation of blood in the abdominal space, and in diabetes mellitus due to the development of asymmetric proximal neuropathy.
Simultaneous knee and lower back pain. Pain in the knee joint together with lumbar pain can occur with orthopedic disorders of the hip joint. In the case of oncology of the female reproductive system and prostate cancer in men. Fractures of the pelvic bones cause numbness of the skin, pain and a pins and needles sensation in the area of the obturator nerve, sometimes radiating to the medial region of the knee.
Pain in the upper and middle segment of the back can be a consequence of muscle hyperactivity, excessive tension, intercostal traumatic neuropathy, sponditis, transverse myelitis, thoracic spondylosis, ankylosing spondylitis, and spinal oncology.
Lumbar pain. Most of this pain occurs due to orthopedic problems - osteochondrosis, damage or degeneration of discs, spondylosis. It may be a consequence of an arachnoid cyst in the sacral area, local thickening of the gluteal muscles, or inflammation of the sciatic nerve. In young men, night pain may be a consequence of ankylosing spondylitis.
Back pain due to problems with the spine can have the following causes:
Lower back pain sometimes occurs as a result of problems with internal organs . Often the lower back hurts due to problems with the lungs, heart, gynecology, and digestive organs. Less commonly, pain is psychogenic - due to mental distress. The mechanism of their occurrence is based on the receipt of data in the brain about the state of the organ - its well-being, what difficulties it experiences, what it lacks and what it has to cope with. The feedback information is immediately carried by the nervous system to the joints, muscles and organs.
With such pain there are no local symptoms or stiffness in the back; full movements of the back do not increase the pain. Their causes may be:
After the first signs of pain, you need to contact a specialist as soon as possible, and it does not matter what nature it is. Even minor pain indicates health problems. Pain in the back area may indicate both a disease of the spine and internal organs. It is impossible to make a diagnosis yourself; first of all, you need to contact the following doctors:
Diseases of the musculoskeletal system are caused by a variety of reasons. These could be injuries, infections, degenerative processes. Many diseases are similar in their symptoms to each other, but only professional diagnostics can indicate the correct diagnosis. The main diagnostic methods are:
Successful treatment of back diseases depends on a person’s faith in his recovery, as well as the correct treatment regimen, which is prescribed by a doctor and consists of:
Treatment of degenerative diseases in the lumbar spine involves the use of the following groups of drugs:
Physiotherapy procedures in the treatment of back diseases are successfully used in all specialized medical institutions. This is an effective method of treating many diseases and an effective means of rehabilitation, accelerating the recovery of the body. The procedures relieve tension, improve muscle tone, and regenerate damaged tissue. The methods do not lead to side effects, unlike drug treatment.
Folk remedies for back diseases are an additional means of recovery both during drug treatment and during the postoperative and recovery period. The most common methods of traditional medicine:
Exercise therapy is an important component of non-drug treatment for diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Sets of exercises are developed and prescribed by a doctor, taking into account the type and stage of the disease. They include not only back exercises, but also breathing and isometric exercises. The complex activates blood circulation and tissue metabolic processes . Therapeutic gymnastics will not only restore the flexibility of the back, but will add strength to it and improve your posture. Physical education courses will remove not only chronic, but also periodic pain, while adding health to the entire body.
This type of treatment is a method of healing through the physical influence of the doctor on the spine, muscles and joints, internal organs, as well as the patient’s skull. Many people do not see the difference between it and massage. Here it should be understood that massage targets soft tissues. Manual therapy deals with misalignment of joints and vertebrae. Any disease, including heart disease, can be an indication for its use. For the spine, it is performed in the following conditions:
The essence of acupuncture is the impact of thin needles on human acupuncture points in order to normalize the vital processes of the body. Together with massage, acupuncture is used in the treatment of various diseases of the spine, nervous, digestive, genitourinary systems, respiratory organs, allergic diseases and childhood diseases. It also stimulates hidden reserves, corrects internal processes and body weight, and affects the rejuvenation of the body. The treatment has no contraindications or side effects , such as drug intolerance or allergies.
It is carried out in exceptional cases , only when conservative treatment does not give encouraging results. During it, defects of the vertebrae and discs, pressure on the nerve roots and other pathologies are eliminated. Until recently, laminectomy was considered the standard operation for removing intervertebral hernia. The method has significant disadvantages, such as high trauma and difficult postoperative recovery, and there is a high probability of relapses. At the moment, less traumatic techniques have been developed, in which the trepanation window is reduced as much as possible. Inlaminar hernia removal is considered the most acceptable method of surgical intervention. Further improvement of methods follows the path of microsurgical removal with a reduction in the size of the surgical injury.
Poor quality treatment, or its absence, leads to the progression of the disease, transforming into chronic and severe forms. As a result, if any part of the spine becomes ill, the damage will spread to other parts of it , which will inevitably lead to the need for surgery, and in some cases to disability. In this case, self-medication is not allowed, since back diseases require a competent and professional approach. To prevent the development of the disease, any person should undergo a medical examination at least once a year.
Lower back pain, radiating to the legs to the knees, is the result of a systematic improper load on the spine, which leads to various diseases. Sometimes, in order to identify the cause, you need to visit several specialists: a neurologist, osteopath, orthopedist, etc. The symptom cannot be ignored, since the pathology has been developing for a long time.
In cases where lower back pain radiates to the leg, moves to the knee and below, an integrated approach to examination and therapy is required.
The reasons may be different:
At risk are people prone to osteochondrosis and back diseases.
Classification of pain:
Pain in the lumbar region with irradiation to the knee is also caused by gynecological diseases and impaired functionality of the genitourinary system.
For aching pain extending from the lower back to the knee, the doctor prescribes a full examination for the patient, which includes:
Sometimes situational tests are required: x-ray of the leg, bone scan, checking blood pressure in the extremities, scintigraphy, checking the lymph nodes, ultrasound of the blood flow.
The most common diagnosis for lower back pain extending to the knee is Neuralgia. Treatment is prescribed:
Treatment continues after the underlying inflammation and pain has been relieved, tight muscles have been relaxed, and blood circulation has been restored. Doctors strive to achieve complete recovery or bring the disease to the stage of deep remission.
It is difficult for pregnant women to choose suitable medications; physiotherapeutic procedures and orthopedic products that fix the knee joint with the ability to adjust movement restrictions are acceptable.
Only a doctor prescribes medications, their dosage and frequency of administration.
Physiotherapeutic procedures reduce pain, improve blood circulation, and restore metabolic processes.
If there are no contraindications, doctors prescribe:
All procedures are carried out in courses, repeated every month. For persistent pain in the lumbar region, it is recommended to wear an orthopedic bandage that supports the base of the spine, relieving point pain in the buttock. For the same purpose, you can wear a regular warming belt. The area of pain should be rubbed with ointments with a warming effect.