Also called: SI Joint Pain
The sacroiliac joint is the area where your pelvis and your lower spine connect. If this joint is inflamed, it can cause pain into your buttocks and lower back. The pain can be made worse if you stand for long periods of time, put more weight on one leg than the other, run, or climb stairs.
Sacroiliac joint pain can be caused by things like:
- Arthritis
- Trauma
- Pregnancy
- Infection
How Sacroiliac Joint Pain is Diagnosed and Treated
Sacroiliac joint pain can be diagnosed by a physical exam, x-ray, or diagnostic injection. Treatment approaches at UAMS for this type of joint pain include:
- Physical therapy: The goal of physical therapy is to strengthen your core muscles to help you return to activity as soon as possible. Physical therapists can provide pain management techniques that you can perform at home. Maintaining your core strength is important to reducing your pain and preserving the overall health of your spine.
- Injections: Steroid injections can decrease the inflammation of the sacroiliac joint area.
- Radiofrequency ablation
- Electrical stimulation
- Surgery evaluation for SI fusion: Involves using instrumentation to stop the movement in the affected area. Over the next several months new bone will grow across the area permanently fusing the two pieces of bone.
