There are few areas of Physical Therapy practice more controversial than the SI Joint.  Disagreements exist among clinicians and researchers on the diagnosis and treatment of this joint.  Many commonly used clinical examination and even medical diagnostic procedures’ false positive and negative rates make accurate diagnosis difficult.  Conversely, clusters of examination findings remain the clinical standard for diagnosis and more research continues to become available on effective treatments for this condition.  

A review on the available research on SI joint dysfunction interventions was published in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science (Al-Subahi et al. 2017).  Authors identified the effectiveness of Physical Therapy interventions to treat the pain and lost function found in patients with SI joint pain.  The authors concluded Physical Therapy treatments including spinal manipulation and exercise were effective in both reducing pain and lost activity/function in patients with sacroiliac dysfunction.  Specifically, manipulation by Physical Therapists was found to be the most effective intervention for this patient population.