Effects of Muscle Energy Technique and Stretching Exercise on Pain, Hip Joint Range of Motion and Function in Working Pregnant Women With Piriformis Syndrome

Piriformis syndrome is a neuro muscular disorder which occur due to the compression and irritation of the sciatic nerve by the piriformis muscle causing pain, tingling, and numbness in the buttocks and along the sciatic nerve. Muscle energy technique is one of manual technique in which the muscle uses its own energy in the form of isometric contraction to relax the muscle by the autogenic inhibition of reciprocal inhibition. Reciprocal inhibition in muscle energy technique was succeeded in relieving pain and improves flexibility. Stretching exercises improves physical performance ability, prevents injury, reduces muscle pain and increases flexibility. Both muscle energy technique and stretching has shown significant improvement in reducing pain and lower extremity function and increase range of motion.

Randomized clinical trial will be conducted. Sample size of 30 patients will be taken. Non probability convenient sampling will be used.A written consent form will be taken from participants meeting inclusion criteria and will be randomly allocated into two groups, to either the muscle energy technique group or stretching exercises group.Treatment will be given twice a week for twelve treatment session..Numeric pain rating scale will be used to measure the intensity of pain,Lower extremity functional scale will be used to access lower extremity function. Standard goniometer is used to measure hip joint range of motion.All participants in both groups will be evaluated before and after treatment programme.Total duration of study will be six months.Data will be analyzed by using SPSS 25. Key words Muscle energy technique,Stretching exercises,Piriformis syndrome,Pain,Range of motion