Prevalence of Piriformis Tightness in Sciatic Patients

Abstract

Piriformis muscle is supplied by sciatic nerve and its origin is from sacrum through first to fourth sacral foramina, from the edge of greater sciatic foramen and from pelvic surface of the sacrotuberous ligament. Objective: To calculate the prevalence of piriformis muscle tightness in sciatic patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Gujranwala and physical examination of piriformis tightness in sciatic patients involved piriformis stretch test. Demographic data, Semi-structured questionnaire, and consent form were used to collect data. All data was analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Sample size for this study was 251. T-test was used for quantitative data and Chi square for qualitative data. P ≤ 0.05 was considered as significant value. All the results were calculated at 95% confidence level. Results: Prevalence of piriformis muscle tightness in sciatic patients is high. Results shows that total 251 sample size, 181(72.1%) patients tested positive for Piriformis stretch test while 70(27.9%) tested negative for piriformis stretch test. Conclusion: Piriformis stretch test was statistically significant and resulted positive in most of the cases