Painful sciatic neuropathy following cardiac surgery

Abstract Ten patients developed bilateral asymmetrical lower limb sensori‐motor or motor deficits associated with prominent causalgic pain after cardiac surgery. The clinical and electrophysiological abnormalities indicated bilateral proximal sciatic nerve lesions, although in several cases the distinction from a diffuse ischaemic axonopathy was difficult to make. This pattern of post‐cardiac surgery peripheral neurological dysfunction has not been previously described but is likely to relate either to the intra‐operative posturing technique for access to the saphenous veins and/or the upright posture used to nurse patients in the immediate post‐operative period and is in keeping with the previously demonstrated susceptibility of peripheral nerves to pressure palsy during cardiac surgical procedures.