Aota Y. Entrapment of middle cluneal nerves as an unknown cause of low back pain. World J Orthop 2016; 7(3): 167-170 [PMID: 27004164 DOI: 10.5312/wjo.v7.i3.167]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Yoichi Aota, MD, Department of Spine and Spinal Cord Surgery, Yokohama Brain and Spine Center, Takigashira 1-2-1, Isogo-ku, Yokohama 235-0012, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. yaota@yokohama-cu.ac.jp
Research Domain of This Article
Orthopedics
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Orthop. Mar 18, 2016; 7(3): 167-170 Published online Mar 18, 2016. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v7.i3.167
Entrapment of middle cluneal nerves as an unknown cause of low back pain
Yoichi Aota
Yoichi Aota, Department of Spine and Spinal Cord Surgery, Yokohama Brain and Spine Center, Yokohama 235-0012, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Author contributions: Aota Y conceived the issues which formed the content of the manuscript and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflict of interests.
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: Yoichi Aota, MD, Department of Spine and Spinal Cord Surgery, Yokohama Brain and Spine Center, Takigashira 1-2-1, Isogo-ku, Yokohama 235-0012, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. yaota@yokohama-cu.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-45-7532500 Fax: +81-45-7532859
Received: September 6, 2015 Peer-review started: September 8, 2015 First decision: October 16, 2015 Revised: October 17, 2015 Accepted: December 18, 2015 Article in press: December 21, 2015 Published online: March 18, 2016
Abstract
Entrapment of middle cluneal nerves induces low back pain and leg symptoms. The middle cluneal nerves can become spontaneously entrapped where this nerve pass under the long posterior sacroiliac ligament. A case of severe low back pain, which was completely treated by release of the middle cluneal nerve, was presented. Entrapment of middle cluneal nerves is possibly underdiagnosed cause of low-back and/or leg symptoms. Spinal surgeons should be aware of this clinical entity and avoid unnecessary spinal surgeries and sacroiliac fusion. This paper is to draw attention by pain clinicians in this unrecognized etiology.
Core tip: A case of severe low back pain, which was completely treated by release of the middle cluneal nerve, was presented. Clunealgia is underdiagnosed cause of low back pain and leg pain. The middle cluneal nerve may be entrapped where this nerve pass under or through the long posterior sacroiliac ligament.
