Among patients with acute sciatica caused by a herniated lumbar disk (a condition also known as "acute radiculopathy"), a short course of oral steroids resulted in only modest improvement in function and no significant improvement in pain, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Acute sciatica, characterized by radiating buttock and leg pain, is most frequently associated with a herniated disk in the lower (lumbar) spine, and occurs in more than one in 10 people sometime in their lives.
