Abstract
Sciatica is a highly prevalent condition. Its main presenting symptoms are radiating pain in the lower extremity with possible sensory or motor disturbances. In about 90% of cases sciatica is caused by disc herniation with nerve root compression.[1] Lumbar stenosis and tumors are other less common etiologies.[1] Few cases in the literature report sciatic pain due to gluteal masses.[2,3] We describe a patient with left sciatic pain of 3 years duration who failed to respond to conservative medical treatment. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a large oval mass interposed between the gluteus medius and gluteus maximus muscles and insinuating within the fibers of the gluteus medius. The patient’s pain completely resolved after surgical excision of the mass. This represents an uncommon, yet a possibly treatable and reversible etiology of sciatica and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of this condition
Keywords: Sciatica, intramuscular lipoma,back pain,soft tissue mass,gluteal lipoma.
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Corresponding Author
Fadila Naji
Department of Family Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v8i10.12
