Very non specific but yes health anxiety. Age 23 male I had a gluteal abscess on left side in sep 2021. I got fever too and it got healed by itself. Took no medicine. Since then I had pain/discomfort in left sacroiliac joint. Are they related? Is that due to infection? Septic arthritis? How do I rule out this. Please help. How should I proceed.

Dr. Dev Anand RamanathanPhysiotherapist19yrs exp

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Regards Lybrate user. Its ironic as your query starts "non specific" but surprisingly the terms in the query are very specific concerns (with medical terminology). Its understandable about the health related anxiety. First one needs to understand that an abscess means a localized infection in an area. With gluteal abscess, it could be within the muscle bulk or between the muscles present in the buttock area. Infections, if treated appropriately could heal quicker than spontaneous recovery. As the abscess heals, there could be possible scarring of tissue that could cause adherence (that is attaching 2 different layers which should actually be moving). The adherent tissues, may not move easily and hence cause a pain when the muscles attempt to move. To answer 2nd part of the question, if it could be septic arthritis - one needs to understand the chances of septic arthritis is high when there is an open injury or if it is very close to the area of infection. If the infection had not subsided or if the infection had moved into the joint, one may continue to have constitutional symptoms like fever, fatigue, nausea / vomiting, sweating, loss of appetite etc. Also if an infection affects a joint, it would be next to impossible to weight bear through the joint due to severe pain in the joint. Summarizing the points - if there is no pain on weight bearing, if walking is normal, and if there are no constitutional symptoms, then there is less likeliness for it to be septic arthritis. You may try to stretch the gluteal muscles by pulling knee to chest & crossing over to the opposite side (toward shoulder), sustain the stretch for 20-30 seconds, 2 reps twice daily to check if the discomfort relieves. If symptoms persist, you may consult a physician or physiotherapist for a detailed evaluation.  

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