Evaluation of New Therapeutic Sacroiliac Joint Manipulation Technique for Patients with Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction

Purpose: The sacroiliac joint (SIJ) can be a cause of low back pain and sciatica. The aim of this study was to assess and introduce a new physiotherapy manipulation intervention for SIJ-related back and leg pain.

Methods: As a double-blinded, randomized trial, we evaluated the short-term therapeutic efï¬Âcacy of a new intervention therapy against the current traditional practice. In this study, 60 patients with SIJ-related leg and back pain were studied. Following the initial assessment of each patient with respect to their perception of pain and quality of life (QOL), the effect of the treatment was evaluated. Using the visual analogue scale (annexure 1), perception of pain was assessed before and after the 1^st, 2^nd and 5^th day (3^rdday) of treatment. The instrument used for evaluation of quality of life was SF-36 (annexure1). At the outset of the study, QOL status was determined using this instrument. After the course of treatment by the assigned treatment method, each patient was reassessed using the SF-36 at the 5^th week following a lapse of 4-week treatment free period. Except for having to drop out one patient for his failure to keep to the appointment, another 59 patients were treated successfully.

The results: The results show that the effect is highly significant at α = 0.001(CI 4.3+0.7) for pain reduction and α = 0.001(CI 1447.5+24.2) for QOL improvement. Of the 59 patients, 100% (n=30) have recovered from pain with the new treatment after the 3^rd visit, while the recovery rate among patients who received the traditional treatment is 6.8% (n=29) after the 3^rd visit.

 

Conclusion: In this double-blinded intervention study, the new manual therapy technique appeared to be the choice of treatment and more beneficial to the patients with back pain due to sacroiliac dysfunction than the traditional treatment. Further study to investigate its benefits with larger population should be encouraged.

Keywords: Sacroiliac joint, Treatment, Manual therapy, Physiotherapy, Heat therapy, Exercise therapy, Joint mobilization, Quality of Life

Figures/ Images/ Graphs/ Table (both Color and BW) if any.

Author(s): T.M.D.N.Ujitha Bandara

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