The Effect of chronic sciatica on the knee and ankle joints

Abstract EN

-One hundred patients with chronic sciatica were stud-ied to determine the effects upon the knee and anklejoints of hotlt the sciatic and non-sciatic sides.

Thefrequency of the clinical involvement ofthe knee and anklejoints a! the sciatic side were 51 % and 46 % respectively, compared to 20 % and 6% on the non-sciatic side (p < 0.

001).

The most frequent knee and/or ankle joint manifesta-dons on the sciatic side were recurrent pain and tender-ness although these symptoms may be confused with the points valliex and secondary pain loci.

Painful exten-sion, giving way ofthe kneejoint and recurrent twist ofthe foot seem significant in identifying affectedjoints together with functional limitations and swelling ofthe knee.

Age, gender, duration and affected side seem have some iin-pact on the development of these symptoms It is concluded that chronic sciatica may predispose the knee and anklejoints to different insults in the context of muscle weakness, changed biomechanics and neurologi-cal abnormalities, resulting ill the above problems.