Sacroiliac Therapy
Sacroiliac therapy comes in a variety of forms with many different goals in mind, depending on the causative condition enacting pain and the expectations of the patient. Therapy can be used to help patients better cope with with pain or to resolve the underlying causative process for pain. This is the classic symptomatic versus curative treatment scenario. Furthermore, different treatments may be used for sacroiliitis than for symptoms caused by
sacroiliac joint dysfunction.
A combined care approach to SI joint therapy often consists of various conservative medical and
complementary
treatments designed to improve joint function and relieve painful symptoms.
Sacroiliac pain
remains a controversial diagnosis, since it is very difficult to distinguish symptoms originating in the SI joint from many other common lower back and buttock pain conditions.
Sacroiliac Joint Therapy Modalities
There are many common treatment options for
SI joint pain.
Many choices involve
massage
or
manipulation
of the joint manually or though
exercise
therapy. The majority of treatments are conservative in nature and
surgery
is not a common solution unless the pain is chronic and severe. Surgical correction of SI joint conditions does not show very good results for pain relief and the procedures are usually reserved for desperate cases. Detailed information on therapy modalities can be found on my
back pain treatments
page.
Results of Sacroiliac Therapy
Therapy for SI joint issues should help to resolve the pain in a matter of weeks in most cases. SI pain syndromes which resist treatment might very well be
misdiagnosed
conditions. This is a common phenomenon which explains why so many patients do not achieve cures despite active and even aggressive professional care.Just like many other spinal issues can be misrepresented as being symptomatic when they are really innocent, the SI joint can also take the blame when degeneration is present, but falls within the range of normal and expected for a person of a given age and condition. In essence, the sacroiliac can be yet another of the seemingly endless variety of scapegoats on which pain is blamed unfairly. If treatment is not successful with 2 months, it may be wise to consider these facts carefully, since changing to a new therapy is unlikely to provide improved results. Reevaluating the diagnostic theory is probably a better course of action.
Recommendation on Sacroiliac Therapy
The SI joint pain diagnosis is a relatively new and growing treatment specialty in the
back pain industry.
Doctors love this diagnosis, since it is a great explanation for
lower back pain
in patients without other obvious
spinal abnormalities
or causative conditions. It is very difficult to prove that pain is actually due to SI joint dysfunction and almost impossible to disprove. This makes SI dysfunction yet another wonderful
back pain scapegoat
condition. Unfortunately, most diagnosed patients have no idea that the SI joint is rarely problematic and fall into long lasting therapy programs which do nothing to resolve their suffering. If you are in a treatment program for an extended time without enjoying a lasting cure, it may be time to reconsider your options. Changing doctors or treatments will not correct a mistaken diagnosis unless you truly wipe the slate clean and forget all that you have been told up until this point. This drastic action is just what saves so many patients with a wide range of previously misdiagnosed health issues. Holding on to an incorrect diagnosis while trying treatment after treatment is the worst thing one can do. Remember the law of therapy escalation in medicine… If you keep at it, you are almost certain to end up in surgery for a condition which may not have ever caused one bit of pain, while the true villain remains undiscovered in your anatomy.
Sacroiliac Therapy to Back Pain
3/31/08 Revised 1/7/12
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