Besides the spine, what are other causes of severe lower back pain?

Chronic back pain: The causes of severe lower back pain

You can be sitting at work, walking down the street, or in the middle of an intense workout when it hits. That crippling, shooting sensation in your leg is a telltale sign of sciatica, but if you’ve never experienced it before, you might not know that back pain can travel beyond lower back pain to other areas of the body. The sciatic nerve is both the longest and the widest nerve in the body.  It extends all the way through the foot, and pain can be felt anywhere along the way.

Additional causes of severe lower back pain

What are the causes of severe lower back pain other than the spine? The following are four  possible causes of severe lower back pain:

1. A nerve in your leg

Often the first sign of sciatica is not lower back pain, but rather pain in another area altogether. Inflammation that compresses the sciatic nerve can shoot that pain right down one of your legs. The pain sometimes ends at the knee, but it can also extend through the calf and even further. Different people experience pain in different ways; yours could be tingling with pins-and-needles, a prickly feeling, a burning sensation, or numbness.

“Leg pain and numbness can be experienced in many forms—some patients describe the pain as aching, searing, throbbing, or burning, or like standing in a bucket of ice water.”

2. A nerve in your buttock

Sciatica often creates upper buttock pain because the “sciatic nerve’s origin point is just at the top of the gluteal muscle in the L4 and L5 vertebrae,” said Breaking Muscle. This can make it hard to sit, stand, or move.

3. A nerve in your foot

You may experience sciatica pain as weakness or numbness in the foot, or may even have difficulty walking or moving your foot or toes. This all depends on which area of the sciatic nerve is affected.

4. A nerve in your hip

Pain from sciatica may radiate to your hip; for many sciatica sufferers, this is often one of the condition’s most excruciating symptoms.

Treatment for the causes of severe lower back pain

Getting treatment for sciatica is crucial not just for pain relief, but also to make sure your  condition doesn’t progress to something more serious. Minimally invasive surgical techniques mean treating chronic back pain is easier than ever. Outpatient treatments, small incisions, and laser technology all make for a quicker recovery time instead of a long hospital stay.

When you’re ready to be diagnosed and treated for sciatica or another painful back condition, contact DISC Spine Institute, experts in minimally invasive treatments, the most effective medical procedures to treat and eliminate the causes of severe lower back pain today.