Failed piriformis surgery happens much more often than most patients would believe. In fact, more than half of all surgeries intended on relieving piriformis syndrome fail for one reason or another. This is a frightening statistic.
Doctors will never admit just how poor the cure rate is using surgical intervention for piriformis syndrome. Instead, they will narrow the statistics down by saying that for verified diagnoses, the cure rate is good to very good. “Verified diagnoses” is indeed the issue here…
This essay seeks to explain why surgery for piriformis syndrome might fail and how patients who are interested in a pursuing surgical treatment might prevent unsuccessful surgery.
Failed Piriformis Surgery Complications
Some diagnoses of piriformis syndrome are perfectly sound and imaging reports show a compressed sciatic nerve, usually within the substance of the piriformis muscle. The procedure might go perfectly also, yet the patient develops complications that can cause postoperative pain.
In some instances, the muscle might not respond well to surgical intervention and might be the source of pain after surgery. The nerve may have been freed, yet pain endures due to trauma to the muscle itself, scar tissue growth or other cause.
In other instances, infection might set in, causing all sorts of potential problems and possibly leading to worse pain postoperatively. Infection is typically a short-term issue, but in rare cases, can cause permanent trauma to the region, especially if it affects neurological tissues.
Failed Surgery Due To Negligence
Medical negligence is a major problem in the modern healthcare system. Doctors are routinely negligent in many ways and only some of these qualify to be called criminal under the law. Negligence in the case of surgery can take many forms including any or all of the following occurrences:
Anesthesia-related issues can cause trauma or death.
While freeing the sciatic nerve, it is very possible for the nerve to suffer trauma due to careless surgical practices or unhygienic conditions. Damage to the sciatic nerve might be permanent and may cause lasting motor and sensory deficits.
General negligence can affect any of the patient’s bodily systems, including negligent postoperative care, negligent drug utilization and negligent surgical practices.
Failed Piriformis Surgery Due to Misdiagnosis
Although the above examples sound terrible and surely are, they are not the usual reasons for piriformis syndrome surgery to fail. This distinction belongs to misdiagnosis.
Misdiagnosed piriformis syndrome is a major problem for patients. Many patients who are told that the piriformis is their source of pain are actually suffering from some completely different symptomatic origin. Meanwhile, many patients who are diagnosed with lumbar spinal and sacroiliac joint issues may be actually suffering from piriformis syndrome.
When the piriformis is truly the symptomatic source, it is often due to ischemia and not structural compression due to anatomical abnormality or sciatica nerve positioning. Instead, the muscle is in constant spasm due to oxygen deprivation as a chronic condition. In virtually all cases, this is caused by the subconscious mind as a psychogenic syndrome.
Therefore, it is important that every patient who is even remotely considering surgery on their piriformis muscle be especially vigilant in verifying the accuracy of their diagnosis. A majority of piriformis syndrome cases are already diagnostic revisions of a past incorrect diagnosis and of these, more than half continue to be misdiagnosed. Getting multiple diagnostic opinions is necessary, but learning all you can about piriformis syndrome and advocating for yourself are also prudent objectives.
Piriformis Pain > Piriformis Surgery > Failed Piriformis Surgery
