Coccygectomy; Is it Worthwhile in Every Patient with a Refractory Coccygodynia? An Updated Review

Coccyx is the last bone of the spine with wide variable attachment to the sacrum. This bone sometime becomes painful and causes a lot of disability. Coccydynia may be primary (de novo) or secondary to a pathology in another place. The most important way to differentiate primary from secondary coccydynia is local tenderness over the bone. The basis of treatment in coccydynia is conservative management and surgery is recommended only in patients with primary coccydynia in whom the pain does not respond to the less invasive therapeutic options. The usual surgical treatment for these patients is coccygectomy which if carefully performed, will have favorable clinical outcome. The most common and worst complications of this operation are infection and rectal injury, respectively.