Disorders: Piriformis Syndrome
In the United States each year, 1.5 million people have lumbar MRI scans to look for the cause of the buttock and leg pain called "sciatica." More than 1.2 million of those scans fail to find the cause in the spine. Three hundred thousand of the scans are sufficiently positive that the patient has lumbar spine surgery. Of the 300,000 surgeries, as many as 25% fail to relieve the pain - in many cases this is because the diagnosis of a spinal cause for the sciatica was incorrect.
Piriformis syndrome also causes sciatica. Its treatment is much less invasive and severe than the treatment of herniated lumbar disks. However, many doctors never consider piriformis syndrome as a possible diagnosis. Many physicians who are aware of it are uncertain how to properly diagnose and treat it.
The advent of MR Neurography and Open MR injection techniques together with new large scale outcome studies are now leading to the successful diagnosis and treatment of many more sciatica sufferers.
You can learn more about piriformis syndrome at our sister site, NerveMed.com. At Nervemed you will find a complete discussion of piriformis syndrome and "sciatica," including a complete range of treatments as well as background information on the condition. Click here to visit the Piriformis Syndrome section at NerveMed now.
Click below to download "Sciatica of nondisc origin and piriformis syndrome: diagnosis by magnetic resonance neurography and interventional magnetic resonance imaging with
outcome study of resulting treatment" by Aaron G. Filler, MD, PhD, et al (originally published in Journal of Neurosurgery, February 2005). Please share this document with your primary care physician to learn more about sciatica and piriformis syndrome. Click here to download the document in PDF format.
