Clunealgia: CT-guided therapeutic posterior femoral cutaneous nerve block

Abstract

Clunealgia is caused by neuropathy of inferior cluneal branches of the posterior femoral cutaneous nerve resulting in pain in the inferior gluteal region. Image-guided anesthetic nerve injections are a viable and safe therapeutic option in sensory peripheral neuropathies that provides significant pain relief when conservative therapy fails and surgery is not desired or contemplated. The authors describe two cases of clunealgia, where computed-tomography-guided technique for nerve blocks of the posterior femoral cutaneous nerve and its branches was used as a cheaper, more convenient, and faster alternative with similar face validity as the previously described magnetic-resonance-guided injection.

Keywords: Cluneal nerve; Computed tomography; Nerve block; PFCN; Posterior femoral cutaneous nerve.