Radiological Comparison of Femoral Neck-Shaft Angle in Piriformis Syndrome: A Case-Control Study

Variations in osseous, neural and muscular anatomical structures in the gluteal region have been investigated for their role in causing deep gluteal pain syndromes including piriformis syndrome. This study aimed to radiologically determine whether the femoral neck-shaft angle (NSA) in piriformis syndrome differs from that in a healthy population.

Two groups of participants comprising 23 piriformis syndrome patients and 22 healthy controls were included in the present study. Piriformis syndrome was diagnosed based on clinical findings and the diagnosis was confirmed by intramuscular local anaesthetic injection. Femoral NSAs were measured from the anteroposterior pelvic radiographs and compared between the control and piriformis syndrome-affected groups.

The age, height, body weight, body mass index and gender distribution differences between the two groups (control and piriformis) were not statistically significant. The femur NSA was significantly lower in the piriformis group than in the control group. The receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that the area under the curve, sensitivity and specificity for predicting the risk of piriformis syndrome (PS) were 0.946%, 100% and 86.36%, respectively, at an NSA cut-off of 127°.

Reduced femoral NSA is related to PS. However, studies with a larger study sample are needed to further substantiate this finding.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43465-022-00736-y.