Position of the sciatic nerve and effect of gluteus maximus release during hip arthroplasty

Andrew J Kanawati; Rajpal Narulla; Peter Lorentzos; Edward Graham

doi:10.1016/j.jor.2017.03.011

Position of the sciatic nerve and effect of gluteus maximus release during hip arthroplasty

J Orthop. 2017 Mar 30;14(2):281-286. doi: 10.1016/j.jor.2017.03.011. eCollection 2017 Jun.

Authors

Andrew J Kanawati¹, Rajpal Narulla², Peter Lorentzos², Edward Graham³

Affiliations

¹ School of Rural Medicine UNE, Armidale, NSW, 2350, Australia; Westmead Hospital, Sydney, NSW, 2145, Australia.
² School of Rural Medicine UNE, Armidale, NSW, 2350, Australia.
³ Westmead Hospital, Sydney, NSW, 2145, Australia.

Abstract

Eight Thiel embalmed hips were dissected. The distance between the sciatic nerve and the femoral neck was measured before and after hip dislocation, and before and after release of the gluteus maximus tendon. There was a significant reduction in the mean distance between the neck of femur and the sciatic nerve in both the gluteus maximus tendon release and the unreleased groups at 60° and 90° of hip flexion, p < 0.05. The mean distance between the neck of femur and sciatic nerve was greater in the release group for all positions.

Keywords: hip; sciatic nerve; total hip replacement.