Piriformis Treatment
Piriformis treatment is offered in a great diversity of approaches encompassing the medical and complementary sectors of healthcare. Many patients with sciatic nerve pain that has previously been diagnosed as coming from some other spinal condition have been re-diagnosed as suffering from piriformis related pain. This is common in medicine, as if to say...“Opps, we got it wrong the 1st time, but we figured it out now.” Unfortunately, treatment statistics show that this diagnosis is often incorrect or only partially correct, since the true reason why the piriformis muscle has trapped the sciatic nerve is often never discovered.
Piriformis Treatment Reality
If your diagnosis has been changed to suddenly reflect piriformis related pain, don’t jump on board just yet. If your doctor got it wrong the first time, what makes you think they have it correct now?The
piriformis syndrome
diagnosis is a common afterthought applied to diagnosed sciatica pain conditions that have not responded well to traditional treatment. Many patients originally thought to be victims of
sciatica
from a
herniated disc,
or other causation, go through a regimen of treatments without finding any relief. They are often referred to a new doctor or even re-diagnosed by their original doctor as suffering from possible piriformis syndrome symptoms. Occasionally, piriformis syndrome is the original diagnosis, especially when no other apparent cause is available in the spine. This case is rare, but it does occur in some patients.
Piriformis Treatment Options
The usual treatments for piriformis syndrome mimic those for most
lower back pain
conditions. Not all common therapy modalities make any sense for the suspected cause of pain, but are used nevertheless. This is business as usual in the back pain treatment industry...
Exercises
and
stretches
are often employed as part of a
physical therapy
routine.
Ice and heat
are alternated to determine which provides greater relief to the patient and when.
Pain management drugs
are used depending on the severity of the symptoms. In rare cases of unresolved piriformis pain,
back surgery
is sometimes a final option for pain relief.While all of these treatments pre-suppose some structural reason for the piriformis to compress the sciatic, this actual reason is almost never discovered.
Recommendation on Piriformis Treatment
Piriformis syndrome represents a leap forward in some respects compared to traditional sciatica explanations. The spine and its typical scapegoat explanations are left completely out of the equation. This is a good thing, since so many structural issues in the lumbar area are simply nothing more than normal spinal degeneration and have been proven to NOT cause pain in the majority of patients demonstrating them.However, the mechanism for piriformis syndrome is usually theorized to be enacted due to injury, which seems so far-fetched for most patients. Sure, if a known injurious event has occurred, this is a different story, but even then, why would the muscle continue to be tight and constrictive months or years after the trauma has healed? This is where the piriformis treatment sector loses it way…
Ischemia
seems to be a more logical explanation, so it is no wonder that innovators like Dr. John Sarno have received such praise for speculating that it is the true source process responsible for the piriformis syndrome symptom set. Oxygen deprivation makes sense in almost every case and when targeted for treatment, will usually resolve the condition entirely.
Piriformis Treatment to Back Pain
2/27/07 Revised 1/5/12
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