Tailbone Disorders
Basics
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Summary
The tailbone is the small bone at the bottom of your backbone, or spine. Tailbone disorders include tailbone injuries, pain, infections, cysts and tumors. You rarely break your tailbone. Instead, most injuries cause bruises or pulled ligaments. A backward fall onto a hard surface, such as slipping on ice, is the most common cause of such injuries. Symptoms of various tailbone disorders include pain in the tailbone area, pain upon sitting, pain or numbness in the arms or legs due to pressure on nerves in the tailbone area, and a mass or growth you can see or feel.
Diagnosis and Tests
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Bone X-Ray (Radiography)
(American College of Radiology, Radiological Society of North America)
Also in Spanish
- Computed Tomography (CT) - Spine (American College of Radiology, Radiological Society of North America) Also in Spanish
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) - Spine (American College of Radiology, Radiological Society of North America) Also in Spanish
Specifics
- Levator Syndrome (Merck & Co., Inc.) Also in Spanish
- Pilonidal Cyst (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
- Pilonidal Disease (American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons)
- Sacral Dimple (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
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Tarlov Cysts
(National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)
Clinical Trials
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ClinicalTrials.gov: Pilonidal Sinus
(National Institutes of Health)
Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
Patient Handouts
- Pilonidal cyst resection (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Pilonidal dimple (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Tailbone trauma (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
- Tailbone trauma - aftercare (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish