Effect of stretching of piriformis and iliopsoas in coccydynia

Pain in the coccyx is referred as coccydynia. The pain aggravates in weight bearing i.e. sitting. Total 48 persons with coccydynia diagnosed clinically were recruited and randomly assigned into one of the 3 groups. Experimental group I were treated by stretching of piriformis and iliopsoas muscles, experimental group II were treated by stretching of piriformis and iliopsoas muscles and Maitland's rhythmic oscillatory thoracic mobilization over the hypomobile segments and the conventional group were treated by seat cushioning + Sitz bath + Phonophorosis. All participants underwent an initial baseline assessment for Pressure Pain Threshold (PPT) by using modified syringe algometer and pain free sitting duration. All the subjects were advised to minimise sitting posture and use a seat cushion. Treatment was given for 3 weeks, 5 sessions per week and post-treatment evaluation was done after completion of 3 weeks. Follow up evaluation was done after 1 month.

The data was analyzed by using 3 × 3 ANOVA. Tukey's HSD post-Hoc analysis was used for all pair wise comparison.

The overall results of the study showed that there was significant improvement in pain pressure threshold and pain free sitting in both the experimental groups with treatment and improvement continued after cessation of therapy, whereas the conventional group did not improve significantly.