Suprainguinal ligament approach for surgical treatment of meralgia paresthetica

For relief of meralgia paresthetica the authors have developed a suprainguinal ligament approach for decompression of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve of the thigh. This proximal approach offers an alternative to the standard infraligament methods. Its chief advantage is that identification of the nerve trunk is easy and accurate. This avoids the tedious dissection involved in looking for small distal branches with their variable location. Lysis is easily performed, and angulation of the nerve in the iliac fossa is avoided. With this method, poor operative results can usually be eliminated.