 |
||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
||||||||||
Piriformis Syndrome is a Pain in the Butt!Piriformis syndrome is a poor name for something that is not as serious as it sounds, though the pain can be as bad as sciatica! So what is it? Well, the piriformis is a muscle deep in the buttock. The way it attaches to the bones it almost runs horizontally. One of its primary functions is to move the leg so it rotates outwards. The important thing to bear in mind is that the piriformis muscle has the sciatic nerve running underneath it. You could imagine it as a strap-like muscle that holds the sciatic nerve in place, though that is not its function!
Piriformis syndrome occurs when the muscle becomes tight and spasms. This increased tone in the muscle places too much pressure on the sciatic nerve and squashes it! If this happens, the pain can be felt anywhere down the leg where the sciatic nerve supplies. So in a way, it is sciatica but caused by the piriformis muscle rather than a disc.
Why does my butt spasm?! The piriformis muscle can tighten and spasm for a variety of reasons. First, it may be a reaction following some sort of trauma, perhaps following a fall onto the backside. Alternatively, the symptoms may be more of a gradual onset where an individual has tight muscles and the piriformis muscle reacts by compensating for tightness or weakness elsewhere. Piriformis syndrome typically presents as buttock and/or sciatic type pain without lower back pain. The correct treatment would be anything that relieves the tone of the muscle and relaxes the piriformis muscle, so the pressure is taken off the sciatic nerve. Sometimes, directing treatment directly to the piriformis only provides short-term relief. In this case, it would be necessary to find the underlying cause, perhaps some tight or weak muscle elsewhere. |
|
