Piriformis Syndrome

The piriformis is a small muscle in your buttock, which has many actions to help movement to occur at the hip. The sciatic nerve is a large nerve that travels from the lower back and down the back of the leg to supply lots of muscles in the leg and foot. The sciatic nerve passes underneath the piriformis muscle so if this muscle is tight or injured, it will pinch the nerve and cause pain, tingling, or numbness in the buttock and down the rest of the nerve path. These symptoms may be more obvious during activities such as squatting, sitting, running and lifting heavy objects.

A physical therapist can help to teach you how to decrease your pain and increase your healing. After the initial injury is healed, a physical therapist can teach you how to stretch your piriformis muscle and other muscles that can be pinching the sciatic nerve. The physical therapist can also decrease your risk of developing "sciatica" again by teaching you what positions and movements that should and should not be performed.

Other Orthopaedic Conditions
Other Medical Conditions