Sacrum Pain

What Is Sacrum Pain?

If you experience pain in your lower back or hip area, it may be because of damage to parts in the sacral region, called the sacrum. Sacrum pain occurs because of a fracture, disease or sudden trauma in this part of your spine. Any movement that forces the sacrum to move beyond its maximum range can also cause pain.

The sacral part is composed of vertebrae in the sacroiliac joints, through which run the sacral canal, nerves and blood vessels. A fracture or any debilitating condition that leads to structural changes in this base of your spine leads to incapacitating pain and a loss of mobility. Any lower back pain is potentially dangerous and deserves to be examined.

At New York Pain Care in New York City and northern New Jersey, Dr. Amr Hosny and the team of pain management experts can help relieve your symptoms with sacrum pain treatment. Your doctor recommends a non-surgical approach to treating back pain, shoulder pain, elbow pain and other painful joint conditions.

Is Sacrum Pain Serious?

Your sacrum functions as an anchor point to hold your spinal column together with your pelvis. It provides a strong platform to support your body. Without treatment, lower back pain resulting from sacrum problems can drastically affect your quality of life. The critical role the sacrum plays in your body’s stability and movement means you may not be able to do some ordinary tasks. Other symptoms that sacrum pain delivers, making it a serious condition, include:

• Sharp lower back pain
• Pain radiating to the buttocks and legs
• Pain in the upper thigh or groin area
• A tingling sensation or numbness in your legs
• Weakness in your legs
• Pain when sleeping
• Pain when walking, running, climbing stairs or sitting for a long time
• Chronic back pain that lasts several weeks

With so much pain from the sacral region, you may soon need support to walk or do other tasks. Dr. Hosny — a board-certified, Harvard-trained, interventional spine specialist — and his team have the expertise and equipment to diagnose and treat the underlying cause of your sacrum pain. But you first need a concrete diagnosis.

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Amr Hosny, MD, MBA, FASABook Now David Chu, MD, FAAPMRBook Now Vivek Mehta, MD, FAAPMRBook Now Deepali Gupta, MD, DABA, DABPMBook Now

What Causes Sacrum Pain?

There are numerous conditions that can lead to sacrum pain. While an injury is a common cause, many other medical conditions can contribute, including:

• Stress fractures and fatigue fractures to the sacrum
• Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis
• Sacroiliac joint pain
• A back injury
• Autoimmune diseases
• Pinched nerves
• Pregnancy and childbirth
• Complications arising from hip or spine surgery
• Uneven lengths of your legs
• Weak hip muscles
• A sports injury

At New York Pain Care, your pain specialists carry out extensive tests and review your medical history to identify the cause of your sacrum pain. The diagnosis report forms the basis of an individualized treatment plan, and you can’t be treated before your doctor knows the root cause of your pain.

Who’s at Risk of Developing Sacrum Pain?

Some situations and factors increase your risk of developing sacrum pain. Knowing these factors helps you stay healthy by avoiding the debilitating pain around the sacrum as much as possible. Some of the risk factors for sacrum pain include:

• Female gender
• Advanced age
• Being overweight
• Conditions like arthritis
• Pregnancy or childbirth history
• A poor posture
• Sitting for long periods of time
• Some occupations, such as blue-collar jobs and jobs that require heavy lifting
• High-contact sports that can result in hip pain or a lower spine injury

Lifestyle modifications and correct lifting techniques, as well as other changes your pain doctor suggests, can reduce the risk of damage to your sacrum. When you visit a pain management doctor for a consultation, make sure to relate all the symptoms you’re feeling, as well as when they began and what makes them better or worse.

How Is Sacrum Pain Treated Effectively?

Luckily, medical advances make sacrum bone pain treatment possible. After reaching a diagnosis, your doctor determines the best approach for sacrum pain relief. The goal of treatment is to restore function to and relieve pain in the parts of your sacral area. Treatment options include:

• Over-the-counter pain medications and anti-inflammatory medications, such as NSAIDs, for mild-to-moderate pain relief
• Use of medical devices, such as hip braces and other support devices
• Minimally invasive sacroiliac joint injections to offer pain relief
• Physical therapy, including stretches and chiropractic manipulation
• Radiofrequency ablation, a minimally-invasive procedure to destroy nerve fibers that transport pain signals to the brain using heat
• Minimally invasive SI joint fusion surgery, a procedure your doctor uses to implant screws, rods or a bone graft across the sacroiliac joint to stabilize and fuse the SI joint

The radiofrequency ablation technique offers long-lasting relief for people with sacrum pain. Every case of sacrum pain is unique, and that’s why Dr. Hosny and the team at New York Pain Care start treatment with multiple tests. So if you suffer from nagging lower back, hip or leg pain, contact the spinal doctors today for effective pain relief and a better quality of life.

New York Pain Care
20 Squadron Blvd, Suite 290
New City, NY 10956
(212) 242-8160