The Value of MR Neurography for Evaluating Extraspinal Neuropathic Leg Pain: a Pictorial Essay

Fifteen patients with neuropathic leg pain referable to the lumbosacral plexus or sciatic nerve underwent high-resolution MR neurography. Thirteen of the patients also underwent routine MR imaging of the lumbar segments of the spinal cord before undergoing MR neurography. Using phased-array surface coils, we performed MR neurography with T1-weighted spin-echo and fat-saturated T2-weighted fast spin-echo or fast spin-echo inversion recovery sequences, which included coronal, oblique sagittal, and/or axial views. The lumbosacral plexus and/or sciatic nerve were identified using anatomic location, fascicular morphology, and signal intensity as discriminatory criteria. None of the routine MR imaging studies of the lumbar segments of the spinal cord established the cause of the reported symptoms. Conversely, MR neurography showed a causal abnormality accounting for the clinical findings in all 15 cases. Detected anatomic abnormalities included fibrous entrapment, muscular entrapment, vascular compression, posttraumatic injury, ischemic neuropathy, neoplastic infiltration, granulomatous infiltration, neural sheath tumor, postradiation scar tissue, and hypertrophic neuropathy.