Painful sciatic neuropathy following cardiac surgery.
Ten patients developed bilateral asymmetrical lower limb sensori-motor or motor deficits associated with prominent causalgic pain after cardiac surgery. The clinical and electrophysiological abnormalities indicated bilateral proximal sciatic nerve lesions, although in several cases the distinction from a diffuse ischaemic axonopathy was difficult to make. This pattern of postcardiac surgery peripheral neurological dysfunction has not been previously described but is likely to relate either to the intra-operative posturing technique for access to the saphenous veins and/or the upright posture used to nurse patients in the immediate post-operative period and is in keeping with the previously demonstrated susceptibility of peripheral nerves to pressure palsy during cardiac surgical procedures.
Kempster
P
P
Department of Neurology, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Vic. Australia.
Gates
P
P
Byrne
E
E
Wilson
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D002422:Causalgia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009431:Neural Conduction; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011187:Posture; D012584:Sciatic Nerve