Sciatica VS Piriformis Syndrome | 3 Quick Tests to Try!

💥 Sciatica VS Piriformis Syndrome, how to tell the difference!

❌ There is so much confusion between sciatica and piriformis syndrome and it seems as though many aren’t sure what they have! Piriformis syndrome is often thrown under the bus as an easy diagnosis to label someone but truly this is rarely the case as only 0.3% of low back/nerve issues are due to true piriformis syndrome.

🔑 What you will learn from this video are the key differences between these two conditions and some tests you can perform on yourself to determine which you have! The most important thing is to understand what we are dealing with in order to get the help you deserve, that is why a thorough online movement assessment is so important!

Here are 3 tests to help you determine whether you have Sciatica or Piriformis Syndrome!

1️⃣ Push directly on the piriformis! Does it cause shooting pain down the leg? Then maybe the piriformis is involved.

2️⃣ Bend forward! Do you experience more tightness in 1 leg vs the other? Does this cause the nerve pain? This may be more likely from sciatica due to a low back issues since the low back is moving more than the piriformis.

3️⃣ Sit and Kick! Sit down, round your back with your chin to your chest and straighten your leg with your toes to the ceiling. Notice the side of complaint is tighter than the other side? Now while holding the position look up to the ceiling or point your foot away. Does the leg get better? Then it’s probably from the low back/sciatica!

🙏 Send to a friend that needs this, and please like the video!

Based out of Tampa, Florida

*Social Media*

[loriwilliamson]

fabulous video! Wish I had found this 3 months ago!

[jdlewis]

It’s still hard for me to diagnosis. Most of the pain is from hip down to knee. Never to the foot. When I do a groin stretch, as in, sitting Indian still with bottom of feet together and push down on my knees to stretch the groin, that’s when I have the high level of pain. In the hip, butt, thigh area. Is that a sure symptom of one or the other?

[BR-cqhm]

I palpated the tissue on my glute (I am relatively thin so landmarking muscles is not too difficult on myself). I have what seems to be trigger points or tissue deformation ontop of the muscle that is causing the pain. Also, I did your exercises for sciatica and I passed which leads me to believe I may indeed have piriformis syndrome. The pain does not radiate down the leg from the lower back, , it more feels like I have bug bites on my glute, when I sit for long periods.

[haaniehs]

Thanks a lot Doctor
Watching you from iran

[skylercollins]

Piriformis Syndrome is quite common in people with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. For that reason, I think a video assuring viewers they don't have it is a little misleading. For example, I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and I definitely also have Piriformis Syndrome (and Thoracic Outlet Syndrome). Also, just as an FYI, I'm not sure that "throw under the bus" means what you think it means.

[rousefire]

I dont get pain dowm the leg. Its in the left glute and it swollen.

[mikestephensen]

Piriformis or FORAMINAL STENOSIS without a disc component??

[Ceelxaar]

Well, I thought I had piriformis syndrome but I truely think its the lower back. Ok here are my symptoms. My left hip is bassically where the tension is and its so great that I cry almost the whole time. I cant walk cant bend over and the pain is shoting down to my foot. The piriformis muscle hurts so much but not when I sit, I actually love sitting because it takes the pain away but then when I try to stand up its almost impossible. Dont know wether its tye disc or piriformis

[xzilicpython]

I definitely have piriformis according to your definition. Everyone else says it is sciatica. No wonder nothing is working.

[nanaswan]

But doesn't it happen that the sciatic nerve occurs due to problems in these muscles --piriformes, glutes and others?
Doesn't it happen that weakened, non-working muscles of the thigh and pelvis tense up, so as to shorten, drive the head of the femur into the articular surface, block normal nutrition, , developing arthrosis/ arthritis. But not only arthritis! The sciatic nerve can also be damaged by these muscle changes.
Perhaps this really happens rarely, but this is exactly what I had. They tormented me for 6 months, assuring that it happened because of my spine, because I'm 70 and my spine in the picture naturally looks with many changes and problems. The fact that my back has never hurt, no one cared. I was even given a steroid injection in the spine, which did not completely remove the pain and generally only worked for two weeks.
Physical therapy helped for a while, but in the evenings the pain was so intense that it was impossible to even move around the apartment. To make my story short, I'll skip straight to the end: at a private clinic, they first listened to my symptoms (which I'd never been able to do before, no one listened, everyone "knew" right away that it was my spine, disk)
They listened to me and gave me an injection in my hip, using ultrasound, and the pain instantly disappeared. And it wasn't even a steroid, it was some kind of antispasmodic drug and some mild painkiller. And that's it! But after 6 months of suffering, I seriously distorted my entire body, because limping is very harmful, healthy areas take on the load and become painful too.

The information for professionals also: in an old medical textbook for students it is written that sciatic nerve pain should be treated as quickly as possible, because without this it is impossible to make a more accurate diagnosis.
If only our doctors remembered what they learned in medical school.