Abstract
Aim
To examine the historical development of understanding of lower limb manifestations of low back pain.
Methods
The literature was reviewed using the term ‘Sciatica’ on databases Pubmed, Embase, TRIP, CINAHL, Amed, and other resources.
Results
Although clinical descriptions of what must have been sciatica can be found as far back as Hippocrates, the possibility of a neural origin of much leg pain, and the reality of referred pain from the back eluded medical understanding until at least the eighteenth century.
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