| Male and female participants aged 19 years and older with leg or buttock pain diagnosed as having a chronic (3 months or longer) PS without any spinal pathology or involvement will be eligible for enrollment in the study. The diagnostic criteria included: (1) unilateral buttock pain and radiculopathy due to spasms of the piriformis muscle or sciatic nerve compression; (2) buttock pain aggravated when sitting; (3) external tenderness near the greater sciatic notch and pain with any maneuver (e.g., pain with passive internal rotation of the hip [Freiberg sign]; provocation of sciatic symptoms by lifting and holding the affected leg 4 inches off the table when the participant lies on the unaffected leg (Beatty test); and reproduction of sciatic symptoms using a flexion, adduction, and internal rotation (FAIR) test performed with the patient in a lateral recumbent position with the affected side up, the hip flexed to an angle of 60°, the knee flexed to an angle of 60°–90° while stabilizing the hip, and the examiner internally rotating and adducting the hip by applying downward pressure to the knee) that increased piriformis muscle tension; and (4) limited straight leg raising ability. |
Participants with the following will be excluded: (1) psychiatric conditions that would have made it difficult to provide consent, as assessed by one author (M.S.D.) using Mini-Mental State Examinations; (2) any pathology or recent injury around the hip, sacroiliac joint, or lumbar spine; (3) limb length discrepancy; (4) recent buttock trauma and bladder/bowel dysfunction; or (5) deep gluteal syndrome (entrapment of sciatic nerve in the deep gluteal space) or extrapelvic compression of the sciatic nerve or sacral plexus including sciatic neuritis due to gamelli-obturator internus syndrome, compression of the pudendal nerves or increased mechanical stress on the innominate bones, compression of the fibular branch of the sciatic nerve, ischiogluteal/ischiofemoral bursitis or impingement, upper hamstrings tendinitis, or referred pain from gastrointestinal or pelvic causes (including colon cancer, endometriosis, and interstitial cystitis). |
Adult: 19 Year-44 Year,Aged: 65+ Year(s),Middle Aged: 45 Year(s)-64 Year(s) |
19 Year(s) |
65 Year(s) |
Both |