Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2005 , Vol 51 , Num 2

Painful Conditions Arising from Musculoskeletal System During Pregnancy and Therapeutic Management

Esra Arıkan Beyaz 1
1 İstanbul Emniyet Müdürlüğü Plokiliniği, İstanbul

Many physiological changes occur in the body of the pregnant woman. One of them is the changes of musculoskeletal system. These changes and previous pain history arising from musculoskeletal system cause predisposition to various painful conditions in pregnancy. These pain syndromes are special conditions which are sometimes met by physiatrists and must be managed by a different diagnostic and therapeutic approach. In this review, we tried to explain these painful conditions, profilaxis, training and suitable therapeutic management. The causes of musculoskeletal changes in the body of the pregnant women are postural and hormonal changes, weight gain, fluid retention and past history of painful musculoskeletal conditions. The most important ones are low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, soft tissue pain syndromes, condromalasia patella, osteonecrosis of femoral neck, transient osteoporosis of hip and leg cramps. Prevention and therapeutic approaches of the painful musculoskeletal conditions during pregnancy contain training, bed rest, therapeutic exercise, mechanical supports, physical therapy agents, massage and mobilization technics, drug therapy and surgical therapy. 

Keywords : Pregnancy, musculoskeletal changes, pain, therapy