Low Back Pain: Sacroiliac Joint (SI) Pain. Dynamic Osteopaths Solihull

SI Joint Pain

The SI joint (sacroiliac joint) is the joint between The bottom of the spine and the pelvis. It is critical for transferring energy between your legs and your spine and aiding with biomechanics. The joint can othen be injured via trauma (e.g., a car crash or a fall on the butt) or can get arthritic, like any other joint, through normal wear and tear, and degenerative changes. The joint can also be injured through overload, reports of trauma and malalignment.

Primary protocol here with Dynamic Osteopaths is treatment via manual therapy and physical rehabilitation therapy. In the majority of cases this sorts the problem out. If this fails, the mainstay of treatment for this problem is an anti-inflammatory injection. The upside is that these injections can help some patients obtain short term relief. 

The downside is that SI Joint injection side effects from high-dose steroids are an issue. For example, these steroid injections can injure local ligament and cartilage cells as well as impact bone density in older women. One way that’s been proposed to help chronic SI joint pain that won’t resolve with a steroid injection or can’t be effectively managed with conservative care is minimally invasive SI joint fusion. However, while the research for this new solution looks somewhat encouraging, the downside side effects appear to be no better than other fusions and even worse than SI Joint injection side effects. Hence, the world needs another option. There is and that is Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy.

PRP SI Joint Injections

PRP injection treatment is a completely natural treatment whereby a substance made by concentrating the patient’s platelets.  The new study randomised 40 patients to get either a steroid inection or PRP injection. The patients were then followed only short-term up to three months (which is unfortunately one limitation of this study). Back pain was less with PRP at six weeks and three months. Only 25% of the patients who had a steroid injection were still experiencing good relief at three months compared to 90% of the PRP group. Functional scores worsened at three months for the steroid group while these same scores improved gradually for the PRP group. In summary, PRP beat steroid in this small study. PRP treatment (similar to prolotherapy) is pro-inflammatory, meaning it causes a brief inflammatory reaction which facilitates tissue repair healing. In our opinion, PRP treatment has better clinical outcomes and is more natural than Prolotherapy. While steroid injection for SI joint pain is a mainstay, it’s a not a great treatment for long-term relief when compared to simple treatments like PRP  that focus on ramping up the body’s natural ability to heal versus suppressing it. So if you have SI joint pain, please consider all your options. 

For further information about no backpain and sacroiliac joint pain and how it can be treated visit www.dynamicosteopaths.com

Or, schedule free consultation/assessment 01564330773