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| Two Distinct Entities |
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Low back pain and lower extremity (leg and/or buttock) pain are two distinct entities, in need of discussing. The cause and treatments of low back pain differs from when there is extremity (radiating buttock and leg) pain accompanying it.
The cause, incidence and treatment of low back pain VS lower extremity pain must be distinguished, as they represent different pathologies. When the extremities are involved, such extremity pain is referred to as "radicular pain." This refers to pain that radiates or shoots down the leg, from the low back into the buttock, leg or calf.
Radiating pain results from the pinching of a nerve, and the pain pattern radiates along the distribution of the nerve. |
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| Each nerve from the lumbar spine has a characteristic distribution as follows: |
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Sensory distribution to the skin called “dermatome” |
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Motor function to muscles called “myotome” |
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Reflex, as when the doctor hits your knee to elicit a knee jerk reflex. |
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The physician is trained in which nerve is responsible for each of the sensory, motor and reflex functions and can determine the nerve that is involved during the physical and neurologic evaluation. This is part of the data the physician uses to arrive at an accurate diagnosis.
Low back pain, on the other hand, is not due to the pressure on a nerve root, as lower extremity pain is, but is more of mechanical pain, due to strain and sprain of the ligaments and tendons of the low back, and due to degeneration of the disk space and facet joints which hold the spine together. |
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