Pain in the sacrum

Congenital bone structure disorders, improperly fused pelvic bones after fractures or congenital malformations, various pathologies in the small pelvis - all these reasons can provoke pain in the sacrum. The sacrum is a transit area for large blood vessels and the anterior branches of the sacral spinal nerves. As can be seen from this short description, in order to understand the reasons that can cause painful sensations in the sacrum area, you need to know, at least approximately, what can hurt there in general.

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Causes of pain in the sacrum

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Displacements of the sacral bones and their consequences

As a result of some injuries, in the case of congenital defects, various types of displacement of the pelvic bones occur, which leads to deformation of the sacrum. All this, in turn, complicates the work of the vessels and nerves passing through the sacral-pelvic region.

There are two types of this pathology:

• displacement of the right pelvic bones;
• displacement of the left pelvic bones.

The displacement of the right pelvic bones in medical language sounds like "dysfunction of the right sacroiliac joint". Such displacement gives pain in the sacrum, quite intense, in addition, it leads to disruption of normal blood circulation in the right leg. In women, the displacement of the right pelvic bones is the cause of many gynecological diseases. In addition to the listed symptoms, in many cases there is a general feeling of poor health, gastrointestinal tract disorders, manifested in the form of frequent diarrhea, as a result, constant thinness of a person.

Displacement of the left pelvic bones (dysfunction of the left sacroiliac joint) is also accompanied by pain in the sacral region and leads to problems in the left lower limb. However, people suffering from this type of pathology, on the contrary, are quite obese, prone to frequent colds, constipation, suffer from cardiac and pulmonary disorders.

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Sacrodynia

In medicine, there is a certain "collective image" that characterizes pain in the sacrum caused by pathological processes occurring in the pelvis and not related to the structure or shape of the sacrum itself. This symptom complex is called "sacrodynia" (from the Latin name - os sacrum - sacrum).

Diseases that cause pain in the sacrum

Sacral pain is probably the most intense and unbearable pain that a person can experience. In general, when talking about pain in the sacrum, few people actually mean the sacrum. Only people close to medicine can “separate” the sacrum from the coccyx. For an ordinary person, the entire lower part of the spine is either the coccyx or the sacrum, and where the border between them is, and where the spine ends, the coccyx or the sacrum, alas, few people know. Therefore, pain in the sacrum is not a disease or a symptom, but a whole complex of symptoms indicating multiple causes. Here are the most common of them:

• osteochondrosis of the lumbosacral region;
• instability and displacement of the vertebrae along the entire length of the spinal column – spondylolisthesis;
• congenital anomalies in the development of the lumbosacral spine - lumbolization, inability to fuse the vertebral arches, etc.;
• inflammatory processes of the pelvic organs (for example, the ovaries, uterus and fallopian tubes in women);
• consequences after surgery in the pelvic area;
• previous injuries to the pelvic bones;

Types of pain in the sacrum in some diseases

In a number of diseases, pain in the sacrum, of varying intensity and varied in the nature of its manifestation, is an important indicator of the severity of the inflammatory process:

• endometriosis, in one of its varieties, causes constant cyclical pain in the sacral region, which intensifies during the menstrual cycle and has a nagging or aching-pulling character;
• if women have a disease such as parametritis (inflammation of the ligamentous apparatus of the fallopian tubes), painful sensations in the sacral region are present constantly and intensify during physical exertion;
• problems with the lumbosacral vertebrae lead to sudden pain when bending sharply or lifting heavy objects, when falling on your feet from a great height or making awkward, sharp movements. Sacral pain will continue even after the vertebra is "set" back into place, but with a lesser degree of intensity and will go away after a series of treatment procedures;
• radiating pain in the sacrum occurs with thrombophlebitis of the pelvic and iliac veins;
• In pregnant women, severe pain in the sacrum area occurs when the fetus presses its head on the sacrum bone itself or when there is severe tension in the sacral muscles due to the position of the baby;
• acute and chronic forms of prostatitis in men cause significant pain in the sacral region;
• many malignant tumors localized in different organs and tissues can manifest themselves in the form of severe and not very severe pain in the sacrum, for example, cancer of the breast, prostate and pancreas, lung, kidney, etc.;
• persistent pain in the sacrum, even when at rest, may be a sign of tuberculosis of the body or the introduction of another strong bacterial infection;
• diseases of the sigmoid colon associated with its expansion, for example, due to fecal impaction in chronic colitis, cause dull, nagging pain in the sacrum, with acute periods.

What does the sacrum consist of?

The sacrum is a large triangular bone located at the base of the spine and consisting of five fused vertebrae. The lower part of the sacrum is connected to the coccyx, the upper part is attached to the last lumbar vertebra, the "body" of the sacrum forms the back wall of the pelvis. The vertebrae that form the sacrum grow together in stages: by the age of 15 - the three upper vertebrae, and only then do the remaining two begin to grow together. By the age of 25, the sacrum is a single bone. The sacrum has a base - the upper and wide part of the bone, and an apex - the lower and narrow part, two lateral edges. Through the sacrum, through special openings in it, into the pelvic cavity and further to the lower limbs, pass the sacral spinal nerves and vessels accompanying them. Any changes in the position of the bones or pinching of the nerve branches cause pain in the sacrum and nearby areas.

Diagnosis of sacral pain

When you contact a doctor with a complaint of pain in the sacrum, you need to know that in order to establish an accurate diagnosis, you need to determine - confirm or exclude, the presence of diseases associated with the structure of the sacrum bone and its surroundings or whether the pain is a consequence of diseases of other organs.

To do this, it is necessary to take into account many factors that are clarified through a conversation with a doctor and supported by instrumental diagnostic methods. The most effective, in this case, are considered to be:

• computed tomography – allows for a detailed examination of the bones of the lumbosacral region and pelvic bones, to exclude or confirm the presence of tumor processes;
• MRI is excellent for identifying problems in the female body related to the pelvic organs;
• X-ray - for spinal diseases.

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Treatment of pain in the sacrum

After identifying the root causes, therapy will be aimed at eliminating them. Since there are many causes, treatment also has multiple options. Sacral pain will be eliminated as a symptom only after using a special course of painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs or surgery. For all the above-mentioned diseases, there is no single treatment option with only one type of drug, there is always a comprehensive approach, including the main treatment, concomitant drugs, hardware treatment and a recovery period. In difficult situations, surgery is indicated. It is theoretically difficult to assume which path the treatment of a particular disease will take. Each organism has its own "medical history", having put together all the symptoms, problems and features into a single picture, only a professional diagnostician can draw the right conclusions, establish the causes and prescribe ways to solve them.