Lateral femoral cutaneous neuropathy secondary to prior regional surgery: a systematic review of the literature.

Lateral femoral cutaneous nerve entrapment (LFCNE) occurs due to compression of the lateral femoral nerve that passes under the inguinal ligament, manifesting with paresthesia of the anterolateral thigh. Iatrogenic LFCNE manifests due to prior regional surgical intervention. The purpose of this study is to perform a systematic review of literature on iatrogenic causes of LFCNE, describe two unique illustrative case reports of post-surgical LFCNE, and evaluate the effectiveness of surgical vs nonsurgical interventions in achieving functional recovery in cases with prior regional surgery. A systematic review of the literature was conducted following the updated 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines since database inception. A total of 371 reports were initially identified. After removing duplicates, irrelevant studies, book chapters and literature reviews, 12 studies were included in the final analysis. The effectiveness of surgical intervention on extent of and time to functional recovery was compared with non-surgical management, including pharmacotherapy, conservative management, and nerve block. Surgical intervention was significantly more likely to achieve complete and faster recovery when compared to the non-surgical group. The latency, defined as the time to developing LFCNE between regional surgery and onset of LFCN symptoms, did not differ significantly between the specific type of index surgery in this cohort.