Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Oct 10, 2016; 7(5): 414-419
Published online Oct 10, 2016. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v7.i5.414
Bone and soft tissue tumors presenting as sciatic notch dumbbell masses: A critical differential diagnosis of sciatica
Yoshihiro Matsumoto, Tomoya Matsunobu, Katsumi Harimaya, Kenichi Kawaguchi, Mitsumasa Hayashida, Seiji Okada, Toshio Doi, Yukihide Iwamoto
Yoshihiro Matsumoto, Tomoya Matsunobu, Katsumi Harimaya, Kenichi Kawaguchi, Mitsumasa Hayashida, Seiji Okada, Yukihide Iwamoto, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan
Toshio Doi, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kyushu University Beppu Hospital, Oita 874-0838, Japan
Author contributions: Matsumoto Y was the guarantor and carried out the study; Matsunobu T, Harimaya K, Kawaguchi K, Hayashida M and Okada S participated in the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data; Doi T and Iwamoto Y revised the article critically for important intellectual content.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of Kyushu University Hospital (Fukuoka).
Informed consent statement: To obtain consent of the patients, opt-out method was applied in this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yoshihiro Matsumoto, Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan. ymatsu@ortho.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-92-6425487 Fax: +81-92-6425507
Received: February 26, 2016
Peer-review started: February 28, 2016
First decision: July 5, 2016
Revised: August 19, 2016
Accepted: September 7, 2016
Article in press: September 9, 2016
Published online: October 10, 2016
Abstract
AIM

To study the clinical findings and characteristic features in sciatic notch dumbbell tumors (SNDTs).

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed the clinical outcomes and characteristic features of consecutive cases of SNDTs (n = 8).

RESULTS

Buttock masses occurred in three patients with SNDT (37.5%). Severe buttock tenderness and pain at rest were observed in seven patients with SNDTs (87.5%). Remarkably, none of the patients with SNDTs experienced back pain. Mean tumor size was 8.4 ± 2.0 cm (range, 3.9 to 10.6 cm) and part of the tumor mass was detected in 2 patients in the sagittal view of lumbar magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

CONCLUSION

The clinical information regarding to SNDTs is scarce. The authors consider that above mentioned characteristic findings may facilitate the suspicion of pelvic pathology and a search for SNDT by MRI or computed tomography should be considered in patients presenting with sciatica without evidence of spinal diseases.

Keywords: Sciatic notch, Dumbbell masses, Sciatica, Differential diagnosis, Bone and soft tissue tumor

Core tip: The author retrospectively studied the clinical outcomes and characteristic findings of consecutive cases of sciatic notch dumbbell tumors (SNDTs) and found that buttock mass, severe buttock pain at rest and lack of back pain may facilitate the suspicion of pelvic pathology and a search for SNDT by magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography should be considered in patients presenting with sciatica without evidence of spinal diseases.