[Extra-spinal cause of recurrent sciatalgia after disk surgery: a case report]

There is a general consensus concerning the clinical and radiological approach to diagnosis and proper management strategy in patients with sciatalgia subsequent to disk herniation. Recurrent herniation is the most probable diagnosis when pain recurs the same territory long after surgery. Despite advances in computed tomographic and magnetic resonance imaging, it may be difficult to identify the real source of the pain in some patients. We report a patient with renal cell cancer who developed recurrent sciatic pain which did not respond to disk surgery. This case illustrates the need for an extensive work-up before implicating the spine as the cause of recurrent sciatalgia.