Orthopedic aspects of symphysiolysis associated with pregnancy - Alteration of the symphysis pubis during pregnancy, intrapartally and after birth.

Aim. Is the sonographic measurement of the symphysis pubis enough to enable a prognosis of the occurrence of symphyseal pain during pregnancy and birt h? Method: First of all, a simplified definition of symphyseal pain was cat egorized in order to make the classification more easy. The symphyseal widt hs of 171 pregnant women were measured during pregnancy and after birth. Ou r control group consisted of 25 non-pregnant women. 15 of the 171 patients suffered from symphyseal pain; however, 156 of the 171 did not. Additionall y we measured the intrapartal symphyseal Width in 11 of the women. Results: The average symphyseal width of non-pregnant women was 4,07 mm (s = 0.79; n = -25). Pre- and postpartally we measured 6.32 mm (s = 1.71; variation of 3 to 16 mm) in pregnant asymptomatic women. A significant increase in widt h was recorded in the 15 women with pain in the symphysis: the symphyseal w idth was 10.62 mm (s = 2.37; Variation from 6.7 to 15.25 mm). Intrapartally the symphyseal width varied between 5.8 and 1.2 mm. Conclusion: Ultrasound measurement of the symphyseal width shows around 4mm in non-pregnant women . Asymptomatic pregnant women have an average width of 6.3 mm. The majority of pregnant women with 9.5 mm or more have symphyseal pain. If that is the case then conservative treatment is usually sufficient to cure this compla int.