Femoral neuralgia due to degenerative spinal disease. A retrospective clinical and radio-anatomical study of one hundred cases.

We report a study of 100 patients admitted to the Grenoble Regional Teaching Hospital between July 1985 and February 1994 for femoral neuralgia due to degenerative spinal disease. A herniated disk resulting in nerve root impingement was found in 79 patients (83 herniated disks) and lumbar spinal stenosis in 21. The level of nerve root compromise was L2-L3 in eight cases, L3-L4 in 35 cases, and L4-L5 in 40 cases. Herniated disks were divided into several groups based on their location with regard to the intervertebral foramen: posterolateral herniations were entirely contained within the spinal canal (n = 12; 14.5%), whereas far lateral, or foraminal, herniations (n = 71; 85.5%) involved the intervertebral foramen. Twenty-nine foraminal herniations (34.9%) had a component located within the spinal canal (medioforaminal herniations), 33 (39.8%) were entirely contained within the foramen (pure foraminal herniations), and nine (10.8%) were located lateral to the foramen (lateroforaminal herniations). As compared with posterolateral herniations, foraminal herniations were associated with shorter symptom duration at admission (p < 0.05), a greater likelihood of nocturnal exacerbation of pain (p < 0.001) and of a positive femoral stretch test (p < 0.01), and failure of the pain to worsen during Valsalva maneuvers (p < 0.01).