SLUMP TEST for Sciatica

Tingling in feet and legs

(Keywords: SLUMP TEST for Sciatica, tingling in the feet and legs, micro discectomy, Chiropractic Help )

The Slump Test for sciatica is a complex manoeuvre that comes in a simpler form called the Flip Test which you can do at home to test if your tingling in feet and legs could be coming from your back.

Actually, even that is an over-simplification because the Flip and Slump tests are only for a pinched SCIATIC NERVE.

 The lower back supplies two main nerves to the legs that can cause tingling in the feet and legs. It's the onset of leg pain that gets the surgeon excited... and that you don't want! At Femoral Nerve you will appreciate that the pain and tingling from the lower back may radiate to the groin and top of the thigh, and the Slump Test will be negative. Instead we use a Femoral nerve stretch test, which is far more difficult to administer, and has no place in a self-help site such as this. It's best left to your chiropractor.

• CHIROPRACTIC HELP FOR SCIATICA ...

CHIROPRACTIC RESEARCH

In interesting research, three neurosurgeons and a chiropractor evaluated the effectiveness of micro-diskectomy versus manipulation in a pilot study for patients with pain and tingling in the feet and legs from a pinched nerve in the lower back.

All forty patients had first undergone three months of conservative medical and physiotherapy without relief of the leg pain.

RESULTS

After three months there was "clear benefit" in ...

1. 85% of the the micro- diskectomy group.
2. 60% of the chiropractic research group.
3. Seven of the eight patients who did not respond to chiropractic treatment responded well to the micro-diskectomy - at the same rate and degree of benefit as the primary group. Nothing was lost by the delay of surgery.
4. After twelve months there was little difference between the two groups.
5. The recommendation of the researchers was that all patients with a pinched nerve in the back should first, because of the cost and risks, consider manipulative treatment before going on to surgery.

The cost of the chiropractic care was less than 10% of the surgery, with ZERO risks and side-effects. For more details, Chiropractic Research ...

FLIP TEST

In the Flip Test, you can test for a impingement of the Sciatic nerve at home. Sit in an ordinary upright chair, and somebody else raises first your good leg parallel to the ground, then lower it remembering the pull in the good leg.

Now ask your examiner to raise the naughty leg. Is it significantly tighter / more painful in that leg? If it hurts only in the back, not the leg, then you have no frank sciatica, only the first stage.

In the full Slump Test for Sciatica progressively more stretch is placed on the Sciatic nerve but that is best left to an experienced chiropractor.

MICRO-DISKECTOMY

In this far less invasive procedure than normal back surgery, the surgeon is able, using an operating microscope, to remove a part of the facet joint that may be pinching the nerve root and any disc material from under the nerve root.

At Spine-Health.com you can read about microdiscectomy spine surgery risks complications and success rates ... Under risks mention is made of recurrent herniations (immediately or later), cerebrospinal fluid leaks due to damage to the dura, nerve root damage, bladder and bowel incontinence, bleeding and infection. The authors assure that these risks are relatively low. "Quite rare".

HOW SOON SHOULD YOU RUSH OFF TO THE DOCTOR OR CHIROPRACTOR?

It depends. Pain on the left side of the chest? I'd phone the emergency rooms right now. An old niggle in the back that you've had for years? No rush.

Having said that, last week my wife bent over, and twisted to lift a corner of the carpet for sweeping. She felt what she described as "a bottle exploding at the bottom of her back". Not good. She was stuck forwards in what we call an antalgic posture. The sign of Pisa. Because the swelling and inflammation hadn't yet started, the Slump Test for sciatica was negative. But wait three days... and I would have had drama on my hands, in the bosom of the family.

The long and the short of it is that I reduced that bulging disc within three hours of the injury, she spent the rest of the day in bed with an ice pack and doing half-hourly lower back exercises ... A second treatment two days later, and within five days she is almost painfree during the day, except for prolonged sitting and early morning discomfort. Of course, I'm exhorting her to follow the 50 percent less pain rule. Today we'll start the rehab exercise program.

In normal circumstances, if you wait a few weeks before seeking the advice of your chiropractor, you will probably be in for weeks of treatment.

My point? When you KNOW you've done a mischief to some part of your body then it's better not to wait. Dealing with a disc herniation before the swelling and inflammation starts, before it starts referring down the leg and the Slump Test for sciatica is strongly positive, makes good sense. Likewise a bad dose of bronchitis - don't wait for the pleurisy before contacting your doctor.

USEFUL LINKS @ Slump Test for sciatica

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