Abstract
The history of low back pain and sciatica dates back to ancient times. Domenico Cotugno first described “sciatica” in its classic terminology in 1764 and believed that pain was generated by the nerve itself. The big three Vs - Valliex, Virchow, and Von Luschka - introduced the possibility of structure-referred pain (i.e., vertebral, body, disc, or nerve) in the 1800s. With the advent of X-rays 100 years ago, imaging of spinal anatomy allowed correlation of anatomic findings to conditions that explained the origin of low back pain. © 2002 by CRC Press LLC.