OBTURATOR-INTERNUS-BURSITIS - A COMMON FACTOR IN LOW-BACK-PAIN

The presence of irritation of the obturator internus bursa (OIB) is id entified as a common but thus far overlooked focus of myofascial irrit ability in association with low back pain. Eighteen of 50 consecutive patients with low back pain (36%) demonstrated the presence of tendern ess at the anatomical site of the OIB. OIB was found in 11% of men and 43% of women. Nineteen of the 50 patients had regional myofascial pai n; of these, eight (42%) had OIB tenderness. Palpation of the OIB will commonly reveal local tenderness in patients suffering from low back pain. In these patients, conservative treatment of regional myofascial disorders may be made more effective when therapy and/or local steroi d injections are appropriately directed to the obturator internus burs a.