Thursday, September 16, 2010

The piriformis muscle is blamed for a good deal of buttock and leg pain and in reality it is not likely to be the culprit nearly as often as it's accused. The piriformis muscle is unique in that its location in the buttock has in a small percentage of the population the distinction of having the sciatic nerve basically penetrate the muscle and divided it into an upper and lower portion. This has invited many practitioners to accuse the muscle of being the culprit for buttock and leg pain often called sciatica, however this author's findings are that this is an overuse of the diagnosis.

The piriformis muscle attaches to the sacrum and as a result of this any involvement in the sacroiliac joint will by its very nature create problems in terms of tension in the performance muscle. This is not to say that the performance muscle is the culprit rather the piriformis muscle may in fact simply be reflecting a splinting of movement of the sacroiliac joint and thereby be associated with the patient's pain. If this is the case as it is in most instances treatment of the sacroiliac joint can and usually does provide relief of both buttock and leg pain. This author has a simple technique which can be applied at home and has a high rate of success for relieving buttock and back pain in a matter of less than a minute. There's a great deal of expense and effort put forth to attempt to resolve the performance muscle and a great deal of this is wasted given that the muscle is a secondary contributor to the patient's complaints and not usually primary.