Tailbone injuries, such as dislocations, fractures, or bruises, can cause pain and limit movement. These injuries can be caused by sitting too much, falls, or repetitive pressure from activities like cycling. Treatment is usually conservative, but severe cases may require removal of the tailbone. The coccyx, or tailbone, is required for muscle attachment and sitting in a lean-back position, and is essential for processes like urination, defecation, and childbirth.
A tailbone injury is any condition that causes pain or damage to the tailbone bone in the spine. These typically include tailbone dislocations, fractures, or even bruises on the bone. Although sometimes considered a vestigial structure, the coccyx is required as an attachment site for several major muscles. It’s also what allows humans to sit in a lean-back position. Treatment of a tailbone injury is usually conservative, but may require removal of the tailbone altogether, and while these conditions or their treatment may rarely be life-threatening, injury or removal of this bone can severely limit movement and disrupt daily operation.
Tailbone injury often presents with a condition known as coccydynia, which is pain localized to the tailbone. This pain is sometimes caused by injury to other areas. A doctor can determine if the tailbone itself is injured by anesthetizing the tailbone via injection to see if the pain eases.
The commonly reported injuries that cause tailbone pain are hypermobility, in which the tailbone bends forward more than it should when a person is in a sitting position. Another injury is posterior dislocation, in which the tailbone partially dislocates in the back when the person is in a sitting position. Finally, bone spurs on the tailbone are considered a tailbone injury. The causes of these injuries can range from sitting too much on the tailbone, to a fall, to repetitive pressure on the area from activities such as cycling or horseback riding. Any existing tailbone injury can be exacerbated by these same activities and by obesity.
Another type of tailbone injury caused by trauma to the region is a fracture. This typically occurs following a sharp impact, such as a hard fall into a sitting position or a blow to bone. Bruising or dislocating the tailbone can likewise occur from these types of injuries. Prescribed treatment may include pain medication, ice, cortisone injections, and avoiding sitting on the region until the discomfort subsides and the injury has sufficient time to heal. Surgery to repair the damage to the coccyx is rare, as is removal of the bone.
Also known as the coccyx, the coccyx is not actually a single bone but is made up of four stacked vertebral segments, although it may comprise three to five. Each segment is smaller and narrower than the one above, so the tailbone tapers from top to bottom. Found at the base of the spine below the sacrum and projecting downward between the two iliac bones of the pelvis, the coccyx is the point of origin of the gluteus maximus muscle, which arises from the posterior surface of the bone and extends horizontally across the l hip on both sides. Its anterior surface is where the pelvic floor muscles, coccyx, and levator ani originate. These muscles are essential for the processes of urination, defecation and childbirth, as well as for the support of the reproductive and digestive organs of the pelvis.
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