The sacrotuberous ligament is preloaded in situ.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the intrinsic preload of the sacrotuberous ligament. Preload measurements and anatomical experiments were performed on 20 specimens from 10 human cadavers and assessed to consider the thesis of the ligamentous tension band system as a possible load distribution. The result was an unexpectedly high preload force with an overall average of 118 N ± 74 N.