An Integrative Guide to Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction: - PT360

An Integrative Guide to Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction: Understanding Your Low Back and Buttock Pain By, David Mesnick, PT, OCS, cMDT Contributions by Travis Barefoot, DPT www.pt360atl.com
Overview The musculoskeletal system is an intricate network of bones, muscles, and other connective tissue that serves to provide form and structure to our bodies, to produce movement, and to protect our inner organs. "(Professionals in the medical field) use manual medicine to examine this organ system in a much broader context, particularly as an integral and interrelated part of the total human organism."4 "Skilled Physical Therapists are an invaluable part of a team of health professionals providing special knowledge and abilities that can enable the delivery of an effective rehabilitation process, especially for patients with musculoskeletal dysfunctions."5 The information provided in this pamphlet serves to better educate you as a patient on the issues caused by the sacroiliac joint, and how Physical Therapist use certain methods to expedite the process of recovery. Anatomy The sacroiliac joint, abbreviated as "SI" joint, is a connection of two bones just below the lumbar vertebrae (your lower back). This joint is composed of the sacrum and ilium bones. Just as the keystone in a masonry arch serves to maintain the structural integrity of doorways and ceilings, the sacrum is a biological equivalent to the structural integrity of the pelvis. There are 2 parts to the SI joint; on either side of the sacrum we have 2 iliums (place your hands on your 'hips' and you're feeling the top of the ilium) and between the placements of your hands being on your hips lays the sacrum. This is the "SI joint". Previous school of thought believed this joint to be relatively 'fixed', or extremely stable. However, more up-to-date research outlines how the mobility and synchronicity of movement at this joint plays an extremely important role in the normal motion of the human body. Normal movement of the sacrum in relation to the ilium is described as 'nutation' (and conversely, 'counter nutation'), which can be defined as oscillatory movement of the axis of a rotating body1. Another way to think of this is to imagine the top of the sacrum moving forward and down compared to the bottom, and then the opposite would then be counter nutation. These motions occur in conjunction with other movements like walking, bending forward/backward, and even breathing!