Low back pain is described as a very common condition that tends to affect about 70% of the population at some point in time with varying degrees of symptom severity. Although definitions vary, sciatic pain is generally defined as back-related pain radiating to the leg (normally below the knee and into the foot and toes) and is one of the commonest variations of low back pain. Patients with sciatica typically experience a more persistent and severe type of pain, a less favorable outcome, consume more healthcare resources and have more prolonged disability and absence from work than those with low back pain alone. Managing Sciatica and Radiculopathies in Primary Care Practice provides a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the subject and key information for primary care practitioners about low back pain in patients, including definitions and causes, current management approaches, diagnostic and treatment algorithms, as well as clinical practice guidelines.
About the Author: Dr Françoise Laroche is a rheumatologist in the Pain Evaluation and Treatment Department of Saint-Antoine University Hospital in Paris, France. Dr Laroche is President of the French Pain Studies in Rheumatology Circle (CEDR), which is a section of the French Rheumatology Society (SFR). She has a MA in Clinical Pharmacology and is expert in chronic pain treatment and in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). She has implemented and organised the rheumatology, pain management and CBT for chronic pain education at the University of Paris since 1993, and she is responsible for the University Diploma for Chronic Pain Management with CBT. Dr Laroche is also Clinical Researcher at the INSERM Unit (Physiopathology and Clinical Pharmacology of Pain) at the Paré Hospital, Boulogne, since 2007 and has been a medical expert in pain and rheumatology at the French Drug Agency since 1998. She is a member of several societies, including International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and the French Pain Society (SFETD). Professor Serge Perrot is a rheumatologist with a special interest in pain management. He is currently Head of the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital Pain Clinic, Paris, France. Professor Perrot is the founder and current Vice President of CEDR, an organisation that links the SFR with the SFETD. He is in charge of coordination of teaching Pain Medicine at Paris Descartes University. He is currently providing expert guidance for the French Drug Agency on analgesics and is a member of several editorial boards for journals on pain. Professor Perrot has participated in several workshops to establish national and international guidelines on pain management, especially on back pain. He has co-ordinated more than 50 studies on rheumatology in the field of pain. Professor Perrot has worked on morphine and inflammation for several years at INSERM, the French national medical research institute. His primary areas of interest are morphine and opioids in rheumatology, rheumatological pain conditions like fibromyalgia, low back pain and complex regional pain syndromes. He has developed a screening tool in fibromyalgia, the Fibromyalgia Rapid Screening Tool (FiRST).