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."
Yet 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. And of
the 300,000 surgeries, as many as 25% fail to relieve
the pain — in many cases 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.
Dr. Aaron Filler credits the
advent of MR Neurography and Open MR injection techniques
with new large-scale outcome as leading to the successful
diagnosis and treatment of many more sciatica sufferers.
There are many diagnoses and
treatments of piriformis syndrome. Please click on
any of the links below to learn more about individualized
cases from the files of Dr. Filler.
