Sacroilitis

(Part 1 of 2)

Sacroiliitis happens when something irritates the joint where your spine meets your pelvis. Arthritis is the most common cause, especially Ankylosing Spondylitis.

What is sacroiliitis?

Sacroiliitis is painful inflammation in the joints where your spine connects to your pelvis (your sacroiliac joints). It causes pain in your lower back, butt (your buttock muscles) or legs.

A joint is a place in your body where two bones meet. Your sacroiliac joints are the connection between your spine and pelvis. Specifically, they’re the place where the sacrum (the triangle-shaped last section of your spine) meets the ilium (the top part of your pelvis).

The sacroiliac joints are some of the biggest joints in your body, and you use them every time you move or shift your hips. Sacroiliitis happens when something irritates or damages one or both of your sacroiliac joints. This irritation leads to inflammation, which causes pain that you’ll usually feel in your lower back and butt.

Visit a healthcare provider if you’re experiencing lower back pain. It’s a common symptom that can. e cause. by a lot o issues. The sooner a prov.aer diagnoses./hat’s causin, your discomfort, the faster you can treat it and reduce its impact on your daily routine.

How common is sacroiliitis?

it’s hard or experts to estimate how many people have sacroiliitis every year because lo✓ back pain is such a common symptom and can be caused by so many conditions. Some studies estimate that around one-quarter of people with low back pain have sacroiliitis.

Symptoms and Causes

What are sacroiliitis symptoms?

Pain in your lower back is the most common sacroiliitis symptom. The pain might:

*Get worse after you’ve been sitting or standing in one position for a long time
*Get worse when you turn or rotate your hips
*Feel suddenly sharp and stabbing, or you might also feel a more constant dull ache
*Radiate (spread) from your low back into your butt (your buttock muscles), hips or thighs


People with sacroiliitis often feel stiff first thing in the morning. It’s common to have some stiffness after sleeping or sitting in one position, but the stiffness that sacroiliitis causes usually lasts for more than an hour every time you wake up.

What causes sacroiliitis?

Anything that causes inflammation in your joints can affect your sacroiliitis joints and cause sacroiliitis. Arthritis is the main cause of sacroiliitis, including:

*Ankylosing spondylitis. Ankylosing spondylitis is arthritis that affects the joints in your spine. Sacroiliitis is often an early symptom of ankylosing spondylitis.

*Psoriatic arthritis. Psoriatic arthritis is a combination of psoriasis and arthritis. It causes arthritis symptoms in your joints and psoriasis (scaly, flaky patches) on your skin.

Other health conditions that cause inflammation can cause sacroiliitis, too, including:
*Crohn’s disease
*Ulcerative colitis
*Reactive arthritis (Reiter’s syndrome)
*Behçet’s disease

Women sometimes experience sacroiliitis during pregnancy. Hormones that cause your body to change while you’re pregnant can make your sacroiliac joints widen and rotate.

A rare bacterial infection (Staphylococcus aureus) can cause sacroiliitis if the infection attacks your sacroiliac joints. (To be continued)