A 60 year old female presented to our clinic with a 2 day history of right acute pain in her lower back and pelvis region for no apparent reason and was unable to weight-bear when getting out of bed.

Through questioning of her pain and symptoms and a thorough examination it was obvious that she had injured the ligaments around her sacroiliac joint (SIJ). It was still unclear how this had happened and the timing of the pain.

As a new patient we take a thorough history of a patient’s general health including any injuries, surgeries, medications or medical conditions. In this history it was revealed that the patient had recently had surgery on her neck in which she was placed in an awkward position for a long period of time. 

When you are conscious if you are in a position where you are uncomfortable then you will readjust yourself, because this patient was unconscious she could not do this. The Osteopath suspected that a strain of the SIJ ligaments resulting in her pain, may have come from a sustained period of lying in an awkward position or when the unconscious patient was moved from the surgical bed. 

However why did the pain not appear straight away after she woke from surgery? She had been prescribed strong pain medication which wore off at the time the pain started developing a few days later.

Dr Mariella Berry (Osteopath) 

BSC (Osteopathy), MHSc (Osteopathy)