Combined face-to-face and telerehabilitation physiotherapy management in a patient with chronic pain related to piriformis syndrome: A case report

Abstract

<abstract> <p>Piriformis syndrome is characterised as being one of the possible causes of sciatic pain, as well as being a syndrome that tends to become chronic. Because of this, different types of treatments for both this syndrome and the associated pain it causes have been investigated over the years. Nowadays, the evidence increasingly favors treating chronic pain with a multimodal physiotherapy treatment based on a biobehavioral approach. This case report describes the physiotherapy intervention performed on a 44-year-old woman with chronic pain related to piriformis syndrome. The multimodal intervention lasted for 9 weeks with a total of 12 sessions and included manual therapy, therapeutic exercise, neural mobilization, and pain neuroscience education. Initially, the pain characteristics alongside somatosensory, motor-functional, and psychosocial factors were assessed. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, only the pain characteristics and psychosocial factors could be reassessed post intervention. Improvements in both pain characteristics and psychosocial factors were achieved, resulting in a better general condition of the patient. This case report suggests that a multimodal physiotherapy intervention adapted to telerehabilitation was an effective option to improve the pain symptoms and psychosocial factors in the reported patient during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, this may be a treatment option in patients with chronic pain that are in a situation where face-to-face physiotherapy is not feasible.</p> </abstract>