Skully,

As you know meralgia paresthetica (compression of the lateral femoral or lateral femoral cutaneous nerve) is a condition which results in a lot of anterior and lateral thigh (sometimes buttock) pain. What most people do not know is that this condition can be very successfully treated with decompression surgery (just like carpal tunnel syndrome) and is a procedure I have performed very successfuly on more than one occasion.

A nerve block in my hands is only meant to numb the nerve as the local will obviously wear off in a few hours. Thus, for me it is a diagnostic test, not a treatment modality. In other words, if a person has a good history and physical exam consistent for MP and a good result with the nerve block, they are a candidate for the decompression procedure which could possibly provide them with permanent relief (just like in carpal tunnel syndrome). This procedure is done as an outpatient and takes less than two hours in the majority of cases. People retrun to their daily lives right away with the only restriction being that they refrain from strenuous activity for about one month. In fact, I presented my results with this very procedure at the California Society of Plastic Surgeons Meeting last May. In that series of patients, the pre-operative pain intensity score was 9.4/10 and post-op was only 1/10.
drp.