The most common disorder which affects the movement of leg is low back pain, out of which many persons will have radicular pain and this comes under the sciatica. The prevalence of sciatic symptoms reported in the literature varies considerably ranging from 1.6% in the general population to 43% in a selected working population¹. Such presentations were common in olden period too and in Ayurveda it is named as Gridhrasi.

                Gridhrasi is a vataja nanatmaja vyadhi. The name itself indicates the way of gait shown by the patient due to extreme pain just like a ‘Gridhra’ (vulture)². It is one of the commonly seen vata vyadhi in clinical practice. Though it is not a life threatening disease, it causes significant impairment in terms of the daily activities of the affected person.

               Swedana is an effective treatment modality in the management of Gridhrasi³. Gridhrasi is a shoolapradhana vatavyadhi. Shulavyuparama i.e. relief from pain is one of the samyak swinna lakshana⁴. Kati basti is an effective treatment in Gridhrasi as it acts both as snehana and swedana. Kati basti is selected in this study because of its simplicity and instant efficacy. Maha Vishagarbha taila is indicated in all types of Vata Vyadhi⁵. Hence, Maha Vishagarbha taila is chosen for kati basti.

        Physiotherapy is a medical treatment which involves the physical methods such as massage, heat treatment and exercise, rather than by drugs or surgery⁶. Interferential therapy is a form of electrical stimulation produced using the principle of amplitude modulation whereby two medium frequency currents (in the kilohertz range, e.g., 4,000 Hz), which are slightly out of phase, are mixed (either within the tissues or within an electrical stimulator) to produce a low frequency current(0-250 Hz)⁷. It is a form of electrical current that is primarily used for pain relief^7,8. It is said to be effective in case of Low back pain⁹.

          Modern medical treatment has its own limitation in managing this type of disease. Therefore Ayurveda and physiotherapy has a greater role to play in the treatment for such conditions. Both Kati basti and Interferential therapy are heat modality treatments used in sciatica, hence the present study is intended to compare the efficacy of Interferential therapy and Kati basti in the treatment of Gridhrasi.