Sciatica caused by a neurilemoma of the intrapelvic portion of the sciatic nerve. A case report.

Sciatica is so commonly caused by lesions of the spine or spinal nerves that obscure causes are rarely considered in the differential diagnosis. In the patient reported on here, a neurilemoma of the intrapelvic portion of the sciatic nerve was ultimately shown to have been responsible for sciatica. This lesion should be included in the list of obscure causes of sciatica. Tumors of the intrapelvic portion of the sciatic nerve are rare, and we found no report in the literature in which such a lesion presented in the way that it did in our patient. Thomas et al. found, in a review of their files, records of only thirty-five neural tumors involving the sciatic nerve, and only seven of the tumors were neurilemomas