A Deep Insight into the Sacroiliac Joint Pain Treatment

Sacroiliac or SI Joint Pain Overview

Your SI joints or Sacroiliac joints form an important connection network between your lower back and pelvis. The tailbone, also called sacrum, is connecting on either side of the pelvic bones to form the sacroiliac joints. These important joints should be fairly rigid by only allowing a few degrees of motion. But sometimes, in some people, these joints may undergo an excessive wear and tear due to uncontrolled movements. This would make the SI joints to take an abnormal stressed joint position, which will cause SI joint pain.[1]

When you have an SI joint pain, you need not have to bear all the pain that is caused by your SI joint dysfunction. Today, the medical field is very advanced and your SI joint pain can be tackled quite easily. Here, in this article, let’s try to get a deep insight into the sacroiliac joint pain treatment. Keep reading…

How is SI Joint Pain Diagnosed?

Diagnosing SI joint pain and dysfunction in a precise way can be hard because the symptoms of SI joint pain can be similar to other common back issues. For instance, SI joint pain symptoms will be similar to the symptoms of facet joint syndrome and a bulging disc. So, for the proper diagnosis, one may have to undergo a thorough physical examination by an experienced musculoskeletal physiotherapist is required. Note that X-rays will be of minimal benefit and MRIs will help identify the signs of inflammation in the SI joints.

How is SI Joint Pain Treated?

The treatment for SI joint pain will involve the following phases:

Phase 1: Pain Relief and SI Joint Protection

SI joint pain is often the main reason for a person to seek treatment for SI joint dysfunction. But, in reality, pain is the final symptom that would develop when you have the dysfunction and also the first symptom to improve. The second important symptom to manage is your inflammation.[2]

To reduce your SI joint pain and inflammation, the physical therapist will prescribe a range of treatment tools. Most important of all will be an SI joint hip brace, which will offer an enormous amount of support to the hips and will aid in quicker pain relief. Other tools will include:

• Ice therapy
• Electrotherapy
• Acupuncture
• Deloading taping techniques
• Soft tissue massages
• Exercises
• Mobility Aid

During this phase of treatment, your doctor may recommend a course of NSAIDs like ibuprofen.

Phase 2: Restoring Normal Range of Motion and Strength

When your pain and inflammation start to settle down, the physical therapist will start focusing on restoring the normal pelvic arrangement and range of motion of your SI joints. In addition, this phase will look at restoring the following factors:

• Muscle length
• Resting tension
• Muscle strength
• Endurance
• Proprioception
• Balance
• Walking pattern

Thus, he will put you on the lower abdomen and hip – core stability exercise programs to allow the important muscles to control and stabilize your SI joints. Before creating a program, your physical therapist will examine your muscle recruitment pattern and will put you on the best exercises for your specific needs.

Phase 3: Restoring the complete functionality

As the SI joints’ dynamic control and stability improve, your physical therapist will start focusing on restoring the complete functionality of SI joints. He will work on regaining the normal pelvic arrangement and the complete range of motion of your sacroiliac joint during the stressful positions, as well as postures while simultaneously working on the following factors:

• Muscle power
• Proprioception
• Balance
• Walking pattern

Based upon your sport and daily activities, your physical therapist will work to restore your SI joint function to carefully allow you to go back to your desired activities.

Each and every individual will have different demands for their SI joints and those demands will help identify the specific treatment goals you need to attain. For some people, the goal would be to just walk around the house, whereas for others, the wish would be to run a marathon. Your physical therapist will be the best person to tailor your rehabilitation therapy to help achieve your goals.[3]

Phase 4: Preventing the Recurrence

This phase is as important as the above three phases because an SI joint dysfunction has a tendency to come back. According to the medical experts, the main reason behind the recurrence is said to be insufficient rehabilitation. More particularly, poor compliance with abdominal and hip core muscle exercises is found to be the main reasons for recurrence. We would suggest you continue the exercises on a regular basis. Your physical therapist will guide you on fine-tuning and maintenance of SI joint stability and functionality by addressing the deficits and teaching self-management techniques.

References:

1..https://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PDF/PE-Sacroiliac_Joint_Pain.pdf

2..http://www.mccc.edu/~behrensb/documents/SIdysfunctionandtreatment.pdf

3..https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233956961_Sacroiliac_joint_pain_A_comprehensive_review_of_epidemiology_diagnosis_and_treatment