Question about sciatic pain going down the FRONT of my leg?

I hope you get an answer but I suspect what you are having on top of your leg is not sciatica pain. It may feel like it but I dont think the nerve in that location is the sciatic nerve. I too have pain, numbness, tingling and sometimes stabbing pains in my right upper thigh. I can usually relieve it by shifting to another position or wiggling around a bit. Of course the morphine, methadone and gapapentin help some too.

Hi

I also have the pain in front right thigh, this sometimes spasm,There is also a burning sensation in front right shin and most recently burning on the soles of my feet,My right leg was the only one affected until a couple of weeks ago, now my left leg has the burning sensation in the shins and feet area, My lower back aches 24/7, i find walking more than 100 metres brings on these conditions and standing more than a couple of mins,I can sit for a good while though,laying down brings on the back pain.
I see the neuro surgeon on the 24th of this month, I have been through all the p/t chiro/pain management, without any real relief, hope the neuro can help.

Davey

My pain management said that the pain in the front of my thigh is from the bulging disc at L4/L5 sitting on that nerve which is different than the L5/S1 nerve which causes sciatica.

I'm hoping I am remembering that correctly. I hope you get some relief soon.

Connie

This article shows which nerves cause pain in certain areas of the leg

http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/sciatica/what-you-need-know-about-sciatica

Hope that helps

Amanda x

sciatic pain can reveal itself on any part of the leg, upper or lower, front or back, it depends what nerve root is impinged/implicated. the sciatic nerve, if i recall correctly, begins at these nerve roots where the spinal cord ends. you could be referring to the "sacral" nerve roots that run the back of the legs (S1, S2 ....) and would have pain running down the back of the leg, these sacral nerve roots appear below the lumbar areas (L4, 5 ...). The lower L and S nerves are both part of the sciatic nerve.

I too belive i have this but my pain goes to Mt upper butt area and the sides just down my right hip to the beginning side of My thigh or i guess the end of my hip its sooo painfull...but, im not sure if its my nerve or not what does anyone think? i hope u feel better! And im sorry about ur family member God bless.

Hi,

I have been having this front of thigh pain since my fusion in oct 2009. I had hoped it was caused by my infected hardware but it is still there.

My latest surgeon says I have facet joint osteoarthritis at L4L5 and that could be causing my pain. Although he says there is no sign of nerve impingement so he can't explain the nerve pain, just my back pain.

In two weeks I am trying facet joint injections and an esi at L4L5 to see if that helps.

Good luck.

MsHumptyDumpty,
It is strange that I have been on the internet half the day trying to find out about front leg pain today also. Having no luck either, I happened to stumble on this forum and there you were,...basically same question! A few days ago, while I was shopping, I started to have a kind of burning pain in my upper left thigh (inner area). It was kind of 'stabbing' at that time and I walked around for about 10 min and it resolved itself. Yesterday it started again. This time the pain would radiate starting at the top of the thigh and often moving on down in a burning sensation to the fleshy part of the inner side of the knee. Today, I have had it off and on all day. Sometimes it just starts burning at the top and sometimes more by the knee. I have experienced a lot of back pain but never this. I have had the sciatica, herniated disc, etc. I had my first back shot last year in my lower back. I have stenosis in my lower back and also found out about a year ago by accident that I have osteoporosis in the back and osteopenia in the hips and am now on a weekly fosomax. Yesterday, I was a bit scared because I didn't relate this to my back and my mind was racing as to what in the world this burning pain was. I actually started my internet search out in other areas, not realizing that, of course, the obvious has to be the good old back issues. I will let this new problem ride for a few days and hope it goes away. I just don't like going to the doctor Thanks for sharing. Now I don't feel like I'm the only one who has a front thigh pain issue.

Hi group any advise or information would be great. Without writing a book I will try to give a rundown of my history and see if anyone has a similar situation. On 4/18/13 I went to the ER intense sciatic pain that came on very suddenly. I woke up stretched my body out and wham the pain shot down my left leg all the way down to my toes. It was so intense it did not matter what body part I moved the pain intensified and the muscle spasms went from the hams to the outside of the calf. This was only the left side. I had to call 911 and was taken to the ER. Here is my history. I had an accident in 2004 that required me to have a laminectomy and discectomy of L4/L5/S1. Everything was great for years after. In 2007 I got a knee injury to my left knee from repeatedly getting in and out of my patrol car, traffic unit cop. I had a torn meniscus and grade 3 condral defect. Had knee surgery # 1 at the end of 2007, during PT another piece of cartilage in my knee broke loose and I required another knee surgery. The surgeon said eventually I will need the knee replacement because it will continue to deteriorate. The second knee surgery went well and I didn't have any issues for several years, but that could also be due to the fact that I worked as a Detective in an office after that and was no longer getting in and out of a car. I always tried to baby my knee because I wanted to put off the replacement as long as I could. In 2012 started getting a lot of knee pain and I started to notice alot of swelling over the knee cap. I realized that I was walking with a limp and so did my coworkers. This went on for over 7 months since it was a workers comp case I knew my yearly was coming up. In 9/12 I leaned over to pick up my cell phone and felt and heard a pop in my back which send me to the ground with intense sciatic pain. Was taken to the ER where it was found that the disc In L4 and L5 completely blew out left and right side and now I was bone on bone. My spine surgeon said he needed to do a one level fusion because there was nothing left of the disc, but he knew my knee was in bad shape and said you got to get the knee fixed before we can fix your back. 10/12 I had my third knee surgery (arthroscopy ). Knee Doc said another meniscus tear and that I was now bone on bone grade 4 and that a knee replacement was looming , but he was reluctant to do it because of my age. Late 30's. He did what he could but its hard when you have no cartilage on the bones or under the patella. After PT for the knee which was a joke because W/C does not send you to the PT that the doctor recommends but to the cheapest. This PT group did not deal with alot of post op knee patients. Well my back could not wait any longer either, after 10 weeks of PT for my knee my back had to be addressed. Had the spinal fusion on 12/12 and it went perfect. One level fusion L4/L5. The back PT thank God was with a group that dealt only with post op back and knee surgery patients. When I started they did their eval and were shocked when they saw that there was a 13 degree difference between my right leg and my left leg and that the muscle atrophy was awful. They asked if I had even had PT after my knee surgery, I told them I complained that my knee was not getting any better but because it is WC you are at their mercy. They PTed my back and had to PT my knee even though it was not their job, but had to to get my back strong. My back PT went excellent and they were able to get the leg difference from 13 degrees to a 6 degree difference. They said you need to get more PT on that knee from people who deal with post of knee. When the incident happened in April I am still dealing with intense pain in left leg radiating down my leg behind my knee down my calf into my foot, I also have numbness on the outline of my ham on the back and outside of my calf the bottom of my foot. My spine doc said this is being caused by an unstable/unsteady gait. I asked him if this could be piriformis syndrome he said no that would be isolated to my buttock. I lift left or right leg and I feel pain on the left side deep in the buttock near tailbone. Almost like a heavy or pulling sensation. My question is this sciatic or N1 nerve root irritation do to me walking with a limp still. Can an unsteady gait because of my knee injury cause irritation to these nerves? Would an MRI with contrast show were the irritation is. Any advise or information you could share with me would be wonderful. Sorry it was so long tried to keep it short but wanted to have as much info as possible.