Ultrasound on the sacroiliac ligament

Been a very busy & interesting week of cases for us ! Here is Nikita ultrasounding the sacroiliac ligament to prepare for an ultrasound guided injection of steroids to treat pain in this area.

Common signs of sacroiliac pain that we see are; - Hind end lameness - Reluctance to flex through the caudal spine - Difficulty picking up canter leads & maintaining the canter - A ‘camped under stance’ - Clamping the tail to one side - Often resting on one hind leg

Sacroiliac pain can be primary or secondary to other pain (I.e. hock or foot pain). In this case it is suspected to be primary pain.

The sacroiliac area is difficult to image due to the thick muscular tissue surrounding it. Options for imaging include nuclear scintigraphy & specialist internal ultrasound (cannot view the entire joint).

Often we do a treatment trial with steroids to see if this alleviates pain.

Long acting corticosteroid injections can often give good pain relief for 12 months & combined with a good physio program may not need to be repeated.