The Significance and Treatment of Sciatic Pain

Sciatica, or more properly sciatic pain, has always been of importance clinically not only because of its prevalence and its resistance to treatment but because it may be a symptom of so many disease entities. The treatment of sciatic pain of uncertain origin has been complicated by the search for a single therapeutic procedure of sufficient potency to produce immediate and complete relief in all cases. Apparently such a procedure has been difficult to find, for of the various types of treatment reported in the literature not one has had universal success. After analyzing the different methods of treatment for sciatica at the Mayo Clinic, it is evident that the different procedures can be combined into two methods, the ambulant and the institutional, with satisfactory results in a fairly high percentage of cases. Cooperation of orthopedists, neurologists and neurosurgeons has made it possible to correlate the results, and we are