Coccydenia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Coccydenia - Essay Example By adopting these AT devices, day-to-day activities, both professional and personal are not hampered. The article presents an insight about the AT devices for coccydenia patient to make them self reliant and confident to execute their routine tasks in a normal way. Coccydenia or coccygodynia is pain in the area of the coccyx (tailbone). It is also known as "tailbone pain", coccygeal pain, coccyx pain, coccaglia. Medically it is recognized as an inflammation of the tailbone or coccyx, a hollow region present between the buttocks. It is a discomfort or acute pain in the coccyx, this pain varies from mild to extreme. There are various factors that trigger the onset of Coccydenia, an injury or trauma to the coccyx; injury may extend to severe bruising, dislocation, fracture of the coccyx, or other factors like constant sitting posture, fall, childbirth, repetitive strain, surgery or due to journey discomfort. The reason could be any one of these but the condition is extremely painful. The pain can disappear on its own, lasting only for a short span or may require treatment if it persist for year(s) (What is Coccydenia). It is unfortunate that inspite of the fact that it is painful inflammation, common coccygodynia or Coccydenia is poorly understood. In order o understand the origin of the syndrome, along with pain in pericoccygeal soft tissue, spasm of the muscles of the pelvic floor, referred pain from the lumbar pathology, arachnoiditis of the lower sacral nerve roots, local posttraumatic lesions, somtization etc (Howorth 1959, Nelson 1991, Postacchini & Massobrio 1983, Stern 1967). It is therefore no specific reason of coccydenia has come up. In most of the reported cases it is often associated with the fall on buttocks or a delivery as precipitating event or is associated with the constant sitting position. The victims may feel pain due to movement from constant sitting to standing position. It is also reported that sufferers feel pain when sitting on a hard, unyielding surface for too long. Other aspects encompassing coccydenia are deep pain in the tailbone region, pain during bowel movements or sex and development of sensitivity to pressure on the back especially buttocks along with shooting pain moving down the leg similar to sciatica (What is coccydynia, its symptoms and cure). These aspects have enabled Maigne et al, (1992, 1994) to develop a protocol to document the painful coccyx with dynamic films and coccygeal discography. Dynamic films are characterized as X-ray films in the lateral sitting position (the painful position) and they are compared with the standard lateral roentgenograms. The percentage is more in females as compared to males due to anatomical reasons. In females the pelvis leaves the coccyx more exposed causing chronic inflammation. Gray (1973) has defined sacrococcygeal joints as thin intervertebral discs of fibrocartilage. The intercoccygeal joints are synovial infrequently. There are various speculations reported about the sacrococcygeal joint, it is disc, a synovial joint, an extensive cleft, with a frame of annual fibers or synovial cells (Maigne et al, 1992). In some patients ossification of coccyx was reported (Saluja, 1988). Coccyx depicts the flexion and extension physiological movements. Active flexion is the movement in the forward