Low back pain is one of the common reasons for orthopedic patient visits. Probably because of too many media presentations and advertisements, many people will immediately think about whether they have a herniated disc as an orthopedic disease as soon as they experience low back pain. In fact, we do not have to blindly treat ourselves blindly as soon as the symptoms appear. There are many kinds of diseases that can cause back pain, and the most easily confused is the lumbar disc herniation and lumbar muscle strain. Below I will explain in detail from several aspects, I hope you do not delay treatment because of misdiagnosis. The difference between lumbar disc herniation and lumbar strain injury: lumbar disc herniation is lumbar disc medulla outwardly pressing out the nerve causing pain symptoms, lumbar strain injury is the lumbar vertebrae on both sides of the muscle soft tissue injury. The relationship between lumbar disc herniation and lumbar muscle strain: lumbar muscle strain is more common than lumbar disc herniation. Lumbar muscle strain is a lesion that targets the muscles and soft tissues around the lumbar region, and if left untreated for a long period of time, it reduces the protective effect of the muscles and soft tissues on the lumbar spine, which can lead to disc lesions. After the lumbar disc herniation causes lumbar pain, it leads to changes in the posture of the lumbar region, which causes lumbar muscle strain, or makes it worse. Therefore, lumbar disc herniation and lumbar strain are two conditions, but may co-exist. The significance of identifying lumbar disc herniation and lumbar muscle strain: Lumbar muscle strain does not require surgical treatment and is treated conservatively. This is not to say that the treatment of lumbar strain is not important. If you are sure that it is a lumbar muscle strain, you should pay attention to maintenance, rest, and urgent treatment. If this disease is not effectively treated, then it is easy to cause habitual injury, and there will be a shorter and shorter frequency of the disease, more and more serious disease, more and more difficult to treat, and more and more time to suffer from the disease, and so on. Lumbar muscle strain injury using a combination of various therapies, can only be used as an auxiliary treatment, its main treatment should be based on self-behavioral treatment. This point, the majority of patients do not really understand, is to change the work, life aggravate lumbar muscle strain injury habits. For lumbar disc herniation, although conservative treatment is also used in the early stage when the symptoms are mild, surgery is needed when conservative treatment is ineffective, the symptoms are severe, accompanied by spinal stenosis and nucleus pulposus prolapse. What is suspected of lumbar disc herniation? 1, lumbar pain Lumbar pain is the first symptom that appears in most patients with this disease, with an incidence rate of about 91%. A few patients only have leg pain without low back pain, so it is not certain that low back pain will occur in every patient. There are also some patients who have low back pain first, and then leg pain after a period of time, while the low back pain reduces or disappears by itself, and they only complain of leg pain when they come to the clinic. 2.Radiating pain in the lower limbs Lumbar and leg pain is easy to attack after trauma, exertion and cold, each time about 2 to 3 weeks, can be gradually relieved. Any factors that increase the abdominal pressure, such as coughing, straining to defecate, laughing, sneezing, lifting heavy objects, chronic coughing, etc., are likely to induce lumbar and leg pain, or aggravate the lumbar and leg pain that has already occurred. Restriction of lumbar activities The forward and backward flexion and extension activities of lumbar vertebrae in patients with lumbar disc herniation are closely related to the degree of disc herniation. If the fibrous ring is not completely ruptured, the lumbar spine takes the forward flexion position and the backward extension is limited. This is a postural compensatory deformity adopted by patients with lumbar disc herniation to reduce pain. The manifestation is that the lumbar spine bends to the left or the right, and the spinous process can be found to be distorted by touching the spinous process in the middle position in the back, but this is not a unique sign of lumbar disc herniation, and about 50% of normal people also have distorted spinous process of the crural spine. 5, claudication The claudication of lumbar disc herniation is mostly intermittent, i.e. after walking for a certain distance, there is pain and weakness in the lower limbs, and the symptoms can be relieved after bending or squatting to take a rest and the patient can still continue to walk. With the passage of time, lumbar disc herniation symptoms will gradually and slowly aggravate. 6.Sensory numbness Among the patients with lumbar disc herniation, some of them will not have pain in the lower limbs and only have numbness in the limbs, which is mostly caused by the compression of the nerve proprioceptive and tactile fibers by the intervertebral disc tissues. This is mostly due to compression of the nerve proprioceptive and tactile fibers by the disc tissue. Sensory disturbances in the lateral thighs are mostly due to bulging of the annulus fibrosus or degeneration of the joints and not due to herniated discs.