Diagnosis and treatment of genitofemoral and ilioinguinal neuralgia

During the past 8 years, a total of 36 patients were diagnosed as having either ilioinguinal or genitofemoral neuralgia. A multidisciplinary approach (surgeon, neurologist, anesthesiologist) as well as local blocks of the ilioinguinal nerve or paravertebral blocks of L1,2 were essential to determine which nerve was likely to be entraped. Seventeen of the 19 patients having a diagnosis of ilioinguinal neuralgia after previous inguinal herniorraphy were completely free of pain after resection of the entrapped portion of the nerve. Seventeen patients were diagnosed as having genitofemoral neuralgia after previous inguinal herniorraphy, blunt abdominal trauma, or another operation. Neurectomy of the genitofemoral nerve proximal to the entrapment controlled the persistent pain in 12 of 17 of these patients. Ilioinguinal or genitofemoral nerve entrapment neuralgias are rare complications of operations in the inguinal region. When the diagnosis is made by a multidisciplinary approach, neurectomy is frequently successful in relieving severe pain and paresthesias without serious morbidity.