Sciatica is an umbrella term used to describe leg symptoms, such as pain, numbness, or tingling, caused by spinal conditions. Irritation or entrapment of the spinal nerves as they exit the spinal canal can lead to severe symptoms and disability. The majority of these cases can be treated conservatively including Physical Therapy and possible spinal injections.
In our Boulder Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy clinics we frequently treat patients with sciatica utilizing focused exercise, dry needling, and manual therapy. Hands on treatments such as joint mobilization and spinal manipulation are effective at reducing leg symptoms and allowing a patient to transition sooner to an exercise program. A recent review of the literature describes the effectiveness of this latter intervention for patients with sciatica or lumbar radiculopathy.
Giovannico and colleagues published the results of their systematic review and meta analysis on the effectiveness of spinal manipulation for patients with cervical and lumbar radiculopathy (JOSPT. 2025). Researchers included 11 trials of close to 1000 participants with either arm or leg symptoms (cervical or lumbar radiculopathy). They reported spinal manipulation was associated with significant reductions in pain when compared against sham manipulation or Physical Therapy interventions without the use of manipulation. These results were most impactful in the short and medium term time recovery periods.
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