Traumatic Venous Varix Causing Sciatic Neuropathy: Case Report

Abstract

Sciatic neuropathy rarely presents in nonpenetrating trauma because of protection of the nerve by the pelvis, the gluteal muscles, and the tissues in the posterior thigh. We present the case of a patient who fell and subsequently developed a traumatic venous varix of the inferior gluteal vein that caused compression sciatic neuropathy. Seven days after a fall onto her right buttock, the patient developed a painful burning paresthesia in her leg and numbness on the dorsum of her foot. Numerous studies ruled out lumbar spine pathological abnormalities as the cause of the pain. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging revealed a lesion adjacent to the sciatic nerve. Gradient echo and two-dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance imaging sequences confirmed this to be a vascular lesion originating from the inferior gluteal vein and compressing the sciatic nerve. Operative resection obliterated the venous varix, thereby relieving the patient's pain and neurological deficit. No case of a traumatic venous varix of the inferior gluteal vein compressing the sciatic nerve has been reported to date. Surgical resection was successful in obliterating the lesion and relieving the symptoms.