Piriformis Syndrome

Nerves travel through and around muscles throughout the body. But when that muscle is particularly tight or in spasm, the nerve can be compressed and cause an array of problems. The piriformis is a muscle just off to the side of the buttock that commonly becomes tight, compressing the sciatic nerve which in most people passes just under the muscle, but in some it passes through the muscle belly. With either structure, the patient tends to experience pain in the buttock and/or the posterior leg without having experienced any injury or trauma.

In addition to pain, there are postural "tells" that indicate this syndrome. A typical patient with Piriformis Sydrome will usually have a hip, knee, and foot that is externally rotated. This is due to the action of the piriformis muscle, which externally rotates these structures. If the muscle is in spasm, it is essentially performing its action full time, and thus the structures associated should commonly display this action.

At Green Chiropractic in San Francisco, Dr. Jacob has an array of methods to relieve the stress and spasm of this muscle, while aligning the associated structures and coaching each patient on stretching techniques. This method is sure to not only relieve the pain, but to help avoid recurrence of the problem. Imagine that, a true CURE for a medical problem! How novel!