Symptoms and Complications
Not all people with a herniated disc have symptoms. But when a herniated disc presses on spinal nerves, symptoms can include pain, loss of feeling, tingling, or muscle weakness. The amount of pressure the herniated disc puts on the spinal nerves determines how bad the symptoms will be. Coughing, laughing, sneezing, urinating, or straining while defecating make the pain of a herniated disc worse.
Most herniated discs are in the lower back and cause back and leg pain. Intense pain that radiates down from the disc through the buttocks and down the leg to the foot is called sciatica. Intense pain below the knee is usually a sign of a herniated disc since other back conditions don't usually cause pain below the knee. A herniated disc in the lower back can cause weakness in the legs and trouble lifting the front of your foot off the ground.
Herniated discs also occur in the neck (cervical spine). They can cause pain in one arm, beginning with the armpit and upper shoulder blade and traveling down the arm to one or two fingers. The pain can also be felt in the upper middle back and can be mistaken for other conditions. Arm muscles can weaken, making it hard to move the fingers.
Pressure on nerves at the bottom of the spinal cord can cause loss of bladder or bowel control, both of which are signs of very severe nerve pressure. Those symptoms or loss of muscle function in the leg are signs of a medical emergency, so get immediate medical attention if you experience these symptoms. The sooner you are seen, the more chance there can be some recovery of function.
Rarely, a ruptured disc in the neck can cause complete paralysis.