You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Case report
Endometriosis of the sciatic nerve masquerading as lumbar spondylosis in a 40-year-old Chinese woman
  1. Ankith Nair1,
  2. Jian Tao Yang2,
  3. Dan Xu1,3,4 and
  4. Qing-Tang Zhu2
  1. 1Curtin Medical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  2. 2Department of Microsurgery and Plastic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
  3. 3Medical Education & General Practice, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
  4. 4Curtin School of Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Professor Dan Xu; daniel.xu{at}curtin.edu.au

Abstract

A 40-year-old Chinese woman presented with a 4-year history of lower back pain and left lower leg sciatica. The patient had previously tried different modalities of treatments, including massage, acupuncture, ultrasound, alternative Bowen therapy and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), all of which only provided temporary relief. On presentation to a tertiary hospital, careful and comprehensive history taking found that the sciatica pattern of pain always coincided with menstruation. An MRI identified a thickened left sciatic nerve, with surgery confirming sciatic nerve endometriosis. The case highlights the importance of comprehensive history taking in accurately diagnosing a rare aetiology of sciatica with subsequent prompt surgical intervention to avoid severe disability as well as follow-up treatment to prevent recurrence.

  • peripheral nerve disease
  • obstetrics and gynaecology

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-244584

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • AN and JTY are joint first authors.

    • Contributors JTY and AN drafted the initial manuscript. JTY, DX and Q-TZ designed the manuscript. JTY, AN, DX and Q-TZ reviewed the final manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.