Sciatica is the most common symptom encountered in neurosurgery practices and can be seen among the 40% of adults in any period of time during their lifetime(3, 29).It has been described as the pain in hip and lower extremities effecting the sciatic nerve and its branches along the intraspinal and extraspinal extension developed after secondary pathologies (1, 9).The most significant cause of sciatica is a herniated lumbar disc putting pressure on nerve roots or spinal stenosis. Imaging of the lumbar vertebral column, along with revealing...

Among the 19.200 patients directed to a doctor of our hospital specialized in spinal diseases between the years February 2001 and November 2010, extraspinal sciatica or lumbosacral plexus diseases were identified in twenty-seven of those. The average ages of the twenty-seven patients were fifty-three (between eighteen and ninety-one). Thirteen of them were male, and the other fourteen was female. CT scan and/or MR imaging findings and clinical information of twenty-seven patients with an unexplained sciatic pain distribution directed from a specialist orthopedist, a neurosurgery specialist...

The causes of non-traumatic extraspinal sciatica are summarized in table 1.In all of the patients, comprising nine among the twenty-seven cases (33.3%), sacroiliitis was found to be the most frequent cause of sciatica in our study. Tumors constituted the second most frequent cause with seven malign tumors (26%) and five benign tumors (18.5%) in the patients Piriformis syndrome was the other common cause encountered (three patients, 11.1%). The remaining three causes (11.1%) were found to be presacral abscess, internal iliac artery aneurysm and arteriovenous malformation....

Evaluation of the non-traumatic extraspinal sciatica causes presents very significant difficulties for clinicians and radiologists. Lumbar disc hernia is not the only cause of sciatica. Particularly, a detailed history focused on the characteristics of the pain is a substantial component of patient evaluation (2). In an incoming patient applied for sciatica complaints without any disc diseases, it should not be considered that the evaluation is complete without performing a full scan of sciatic nerve. The radiologist could make accurate decisions by means of being familiar...

1. Kleiner JB, Donaldson FW, Curd JG, Thorne RP. Extraspinal Causes of Lumbosacral Radiculopathy. Journal of bone and Joint Surgery 1991; 73: 817-821, 2. Kulcu DG, Naderi S. Differential diagnosis of intraspinal and extraspinal non-discogenic sciatica. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 15: 1246–1252, 2008. 3. Dudeney S, O’Farrell D, Bouchier-Hayes D, and Byrne J. Extraspinal causes of sciatica: a case report. Spine 1998; 23: 494–6. 4. Chen WS. Chronic sciatica caused by tuberculoses sacroiliitis. A case report. Spine 1995; 20:1194–6. 5. Lewis AM, Layzer R, Engstrom...

M. S. Sahin, T. Ergun, H. lakadamyalı, G. Cakmak, M. F. Ceylan M. S. Sahin; Baskent University, Alanya Teaching and Medical Research Center, Department of Orthopaedics, Alanya, Turkey 07400 Alanya, Antalya, Turkey Phone: +90-242-5112511 Fax: +90-242-5112350 e-mail : [email protected] G. Cakmak; Baskent University, Alanya Teaching and Medical Research Center, Department of Orthopaedics, Alanya, Turkey. T. Ergun, H. lakadamyalı; Baskent University, Alanya Teaching and Medical Research Center, Department of Radiolgy, Alanya, Turkey. Mehmet Fethi Ceylan; Yuzuncu Yıl University, Medical Faculty, Department of Orthopaedics, Van, Turkey,