What is a Herniated Spinal Disc?

Before talking about a herniated spinal disc it is worth taking a minute to refresh your knowledge of the anatomy of the human spine as it’s hard to visualise this otherwise.

The human spinal cord runs from your brain through the human spine and is protected in a bony channel by vertebrae. The vertebrae are separated from one another by spinal discs.

At each vertebral level the spinal cord branches off to form a nerve root which leaves the spinal cord, these nerve roots are then bundled together to form major peripheral nerves. In humans there are two main nerves in the legs and they are the sciatic nerve running down the back of the thigh and the femoral nerve running down the front.

A bulging disc is caused by the tough outer rings of the disc weakening which allows the softer centre of the disc to push backwards, usually more to one side then another. This bulging disc can trap a nerve but also it can just cause swelling which causes pain. This is why the term ‘pinched’ or ‘trapped’ nerves are not so great.

A herniated spinal disc is where the softer middle contents of the disc have actually escaped right out of the disc through the tough outer layer.

Whilst many of us will have disc bulges that show up on scans very few of us will have symptoms from them, in fact less than 5% of people with lower back pain will have trouble because of a bulging or herniated disc.

The main problem caused by disc problems is pinched sciatic nerve symptoms. Read more about herniated spinal discs and causes of sciatica.

Have you had treatment of sciatica? Tell us about it, let others know what treatments worked for you and which ones didn't help.

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14-Sep-2009