Sacroiliac pain: A clinical approach for the neurosurgeon

Abstract

Pain originating from sacroiliac joint may also cause pain in the lumbar and gluteal region in 15% of the population. The clinical manifestation represents a public health problem due to the great implications on the quality of life and health-related costs. However, this is a diagnosis that is usually ignored in the general clinical practice; probably because of the unknown etiology, making harder to rule out the potential etiologies of this pathology, or maybe because the clinical criteria that support this pathology are unknown. By describing several diagnostic techniques, many authors have studied the prevalence of this pathology, finding more positive data than expected; coming to the conclusion that even though there is no diagnostic gold standard yet, an important amount of cases might be detected by properly applying several tests at the physical examination. Thus, it is necessary to have knowledge of the physiopathology and clinical presentation so that diagnosis can be made to those patients that manifest this problem. We present a clinical approach for the neurosurgeon.