Ninety percent of the disc herniations (also called protrusion or ruptures) occur in the lumbar spine. The soft center of the disc can bulge or break through the capsule and cause back pain and/or leg pain. Sometimes the back pain quits when the leg pain begins. That indicates a piece has torn through the capsule, stopped stretching it and causing back pain, but now it’s compresing a spinal nerve, also called the nerve root. The lower spinal nerves come together forming the sciatic nerve. (Sciatica is not a diagnosis. It’s a symptom of pain down the leg along the sciatic nerve. It’s nearly always due to nerve root compression in the spine).

Lifting the straight leg stretches the sciatic nerve and its roots. In the presence of a herniation that increases the leg pain. One can also develop numbness and weakness. On testing, loss of knee jerk or ankle jerk reflexes may be found. Often, these findings tell which nerve is compressed and thus indicate where the disc herniation is located.