The effect of physiotherapy in the treatment of piriformis syndrome: A narrative review

Abstract

Piriformis syndrome (PS) is a common sciatic nerve entrapment syndrome caused by muscle spasm or other inflammatory processes in the piriformis muscle area, that lead to compression of the sciatic nerve resulting in the classic sciatica symptomatology. It manifests by pain in the dorsal surface of the thigh that reflects in the leg area, weakness and sensory disorders. The purpose of this review was to search the current literature on physiotherapy approaches to the treatment of symptoms of patients with PS. The PubMed, Science Direct, EBSCO and Google Scholar databases were searched with different combinations of the following keywords: Piriformis syndrome, physiotherapy, rehabilitation. The review included clinical studies, systematic reviews and case studies. From the results of this review, it appeared that there is not a large number of studies on this topic while in the existing studies that were included in this review, the number of participants was very small. The results of this review also show that the various manual techniques have a positive effect on the treatment of PS when combined with pharmacotherapy. In conclusion, the mobilization of the sciatic nerve as well as the strengthening of the muscles adjacent to the piriformis muscle, such as the adductor muscles, contribute significantly to the improvement of the symptoms of the patients, while best results are shown in combination with appropriate medication.