Patients with unabating or chronic low back pain sometimes have sacroiliac joint misalignment. This patient has been dealing with a pelvic organ prolapse since delivery of her daughter 5 years ago and has been seeing another PT for her chronic low back pain. She comes to us from out of state for our expertise.
Her evaluation revealed a sacral torsion or rotation (misalignment) to the left, pelvic floor muscle weakness, Grade 2+ cystocele, anterior innominate rotation right sided, generalized weakness/deconditioned and true hypermobility syndrome. We have used manual therapy techniques to improve her pelvic and sacral alignment yet her sacrum continues to become misaligned, despite use of a serola belt. We are also performing lots of manual/therapeutic neuro re-education techniques to her lumbopelvic region. She also knows how to self-correct at home now using muscle energy techniques. We added on this taping technique after realignment occurred which will facilitate continual cuing for the lumbosacral musculature to “turn on” and increase the patient’s awareness or be a reminder of this area throughout the day. The taping may also provide some stability acting as ligaments which can help reduce muscle spasm and pain.
Taping is a short term technique and something we utilize on athletes returning back to their sport or with patients who have repeat issues. Two taping techniques we use in our clinic is McConnell taping and Kinesiotaping. Here we used McConnell taping because it is more rigid and supportive. Both types of taping techniques have been proven effective in reducing pain during functional movements. We are also doing pelvic floor rehab and she has been fitted for a pessary by an incredible obstetrician who has expertise in pelvic pain.
