more on the cause of piriformis syndrome

In one of last week’s Blog Posts (WHAT CAUSES PIRIFORMIS SYNDROME), I made it clear that there are many potential causes.  One of the most common that I have found is FASCIAL ADHESIONS.  The Fascial Adhesions can pull the pelvis into a torque that cannot be relieved by Chiropractic Adjustments (or if it is relieved, the relief is temporary at best).  Allow me to give you an example.

Last evening I worked on a physically fit middle-aged male with a long history of butt pain (only rarely does he have SCIATICA to go along with).   Years ago, this person war riding his four wheeler, and ended up straddled over a railroad track.  To get over the hump, he was goosing it and swishing the rear end around.  When it finally broke free and jumped over the track, the rear wheels spun and threw him off on the ground with the quad coming over on top of him.  He told me that he wondered at the time if he had killed himself or at the very least, paralyzed himself.   He want on to say that he had imprints of the gravel (railroad gravel is actually fairly large rock) in his back for weeks after the wreck.   Even though he did not land on his butt, he has had perpetual buttock pain ever since.

After breaking up Fascial Adhesions all over the pelvis with no immediate relief upon testing, re-testing, and still more testing, I checked his mid back.  Interestingly enough, in the area of his TL Spine (the very top of the diamond-shaped area of Fascia we call the THORACOLUMBAR FASCIA), I found severe Fascial Adhesions.  Even though this particular area gives him zero pain; after breaking up the Fascial Adhesions in this area, the pain in his buttock could not be reproduced.  Video to follow in a few days.   The moral of this story is that Fascial Adhesions have the ability to cause pain and dysfunction in areas that are quite distant and removed from the area of pain.  For more on PIRIFORMIS SYNDROME, click the link.