User:Athelay/sandbox

Piriformis syndrome is often left undiagnosed and mistaken with other pains due to similar symptoms with back pain, quadriceps pain, lower leg pain, and buttock pain. These symptoms include tenderness, tingling and numbness initiating in lower back and buttock area and then radiating down to the thigh and to the leg. A precise test for Piriformis syndrome has not yet been developed and thus hard to diagnose this pain. The pain is often initiated by sitting and walking for a longer period. In 2012, 17.2% of lower back pain patients developed Piriformis syndrome. Piriformis syndrome does not occur in children, and mostly seen in women of age between thirty and forty. This is due to hormone changes throughout their life, especially during pregnancy, where muscles around the pelvis, including Piriformis muscles, tense up to stabilize the area for birth. In 2011, out of 263 patients between the ages of 45 to 84 treated for Piriformis syndrome, 53.3% were female. Females are two times more likely to develop Piriformis syndrome than males. Moreover, females had longer stay in hospital during 2011 due to high prevalence of the pain in females. The average cost of treatment was $29,070 for hospitalizing average 4 days.