In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Todd J. Albert, MD, surgeon-in-chief emeritus at HSS, shared his insights on sciatica and LeBron James’ return following his injury.

"So sciatica is signs and symptoms of irritation of the sciatic nerve. Let's start with what the sciatic nerve is. The sciatic nerve is this big nerve... it's kind of a compilation of three nerves from your spine. So the spinal cord ends right around where your rib cage ends and then there's a bunch of nerves and they have numbers, you've heard of them, L1, L2, L3, L4," Dr. Albert explained. 

"It turns into a string of nerves, it looks like a horse's tail. And then each level, one of those nerves goes out — L1, the L1 goes out... And the sciatic nerve is this big nerve that is made up of L4, L5 and S1and comes out through the butt, like the pelvis, the back of the buttocks and the bottom of the pelvis," Dr. Albert said. "And then it turns into nerves that control your thigh muscles, your calf muscles and your foot muscles — L4, L5, and S1. It's those nerves combined together. So what sciatica is, is irritation, generally, of one of those nerves from a herniated disc. People get what's called stenosis, but the most frequent thing is a herniated disc or a bulging disc."

When it comes to James, the sciatica pain resonates down the body, flowing from one of those nerves.

Read the full article at si.com.