To investigate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture treatment for lumbar spinal canal stenosis and herniated lumbar disc and to clarify the mechanisms in an animal experiment that evaluated acupuncture on sciatic nerve blood flow. In the clinical trial, patients with lumbar spinal canal stenosis or herniated lumbar disc were divided into three treatment groups; (i) Ex-B2 (at the disordered leve...

The innervation area of nociceptive C-fibers in the saphenous nerve of adult rats was detected by the Evans blue technique, in which antidromic excitation of the nociceptive C-fibers causes a visible extravasation of dye in the skin it supplied. One month after cutting the sciatic nerve, the nociceptive C-fibers of the intact saphenous nerve had sprouted to the sciatic area. When capsaicin was ...

Sciatic nerve palsy is a recognised complication of primary total hip replacement. In our unit this complication was rare with an incidence of < 0.2% in the past ten years. We describe six cases of sciatic nerve palsy occurring in 355 consecutive primary total hip replacements (incidence 1.69%). Each of these palsies was caused by post-operative haematoma in the region of the sciatic nerve. Cas...

Damage to the Proximal Sciatic Nerve by Lesions in the Vicinity of the Piriformis Muscle. Lesions of the proximal sciatic nerve in the area of the sciatic notch may occur from endometriosis, tumors, hematomas, fibrosis, aneurysms, false aneurysms, or arteriovenous malformations. Some authors have diagnosed such patients as having PS. Since the piriformis muscle plays no role in these situations...

Sciatica is characterized by pain and discomfort occurring frequently with impingement at the level of spinal nerve along the regions innervated by the sciatic nerve. Compression and irritation of the nerve often occurs with a spinal cause such as lumbar disc hernia or spinal stenosis. Compression of the nerve by an arteriovenous malformation is very rare among the causes leading to non-discoge...

We have developed a simple and effective animal model to study the distraction neurogenesis utilizing the sciatic nerve-lengthening technique in rats. The model allows macroscopic, physiological, and histological evaluation of the distraction site. Fourteen adult Harlan Sprague Dawley rats (300-350 g) were used in this study. A 10 mm segment of the right sciatic nerve of each animal in the nerv...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of negative pressure therapy in the regeneration of the rabbit sciatic nerve using vacuum assisted closure (VAC). MATERIAL AND METHODS Thirty male New Zealand white rabbits underwent surgical injury of the sciatic nerve, followed by negative pressure therapy using vacuum assisted closure (VAC), in three treatment groups: Group A: 0...

OBJECTIVES To investigate whether the human sciatic nerve might have a consistent somatotopic organization according to proximal fascicle input by spinal nerves. METHODS Twelve patients (55.3 ± 15.5 years) with confirmed lesions of either the L5 or S1 spinal nerve root underwent magnetic resonance neurography of sciatic nerve fascicles including thigh and knee levels (T2-weighted sequence wit...

OBJECTIVES The efficacy of combined lumbar plexus-sciatic nerve blocks was compared to epidural anesthesia in patients undergoing total knee surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study included 80 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Physical Status I-III patients (age range 18 to 65) undergoing knee surgery. The patients were randomly divided into one of two groups. Epidural anesthesia wa...

UNLABELLED Total knee replacement (TKR) produces severe postoperative pain. Peripheral nerve blocks can be used as analgesic adjuncts for TKR, but the efficacy of femoral nerve blocks alone is controversial. The sciatic nerve innervates posterior regions of the knee; thus, performance of both sciatic and femoral nerve blocks may be necessary to improve analgesia after TKR. We performed this stu...