Category

piriformis syndrome

Nov 08
0

Removing Piriformis Muscle Heals Sciatica Pain

By | Dr. Tollestrup Blog, Nerve Surgery, news and events, piriformis syndrome, success stories | No Comments

Dr. Tollestrup Doubles Up on Successful Surgeries To Heal Sciatica Pain

We recently shared this video story about Spencer Hawkins, a patient of Dr. Tollestrup’s who battled severe sciatica pain for years. Dr. Tollestrup was able to eliminate Spencer’s pain by surgically removing his piriformis muscle. Now Spencer is back playing the sports he loves.

Click Here to Watch Spencer Get Back in the Game

Ironically, Spencer’s softball buddy David Sherman was suffering from a very similar pain problem. The two researched online together and discovered they both had piriformis syndrome. David came to see Dr. Tollestrup first but opted to wait until Spencer had surgery. After seeing Spencer’s results, David decided to go for it too. This is his story.

Decade of Chronic Pain

David’s original problem was severe low back pain and bilateral sciatica pain. The sciatica pain in the left leg was much worse than the right leg. David suffered for more than ten years. He endured 11 epidural injections with varying degrees of relief.

Eventually, David decided to undergo spine surgery. His spine surgeon confidently told him that surgery would fix both his low back pain and his sciatica pain. He had a fusion of the lumbar spine from L4 to S1.

The results of the spine surgery were mixed. While the fusion fixed his low back pain, it did nothing for the severe sciatica pain in the left leg. The pain eventually got so bad that it limited David to walking no more than a couple of blocks at a time. This resulted in David having to give up tennis and softball, two sports that he loved to play.

David came to see Dr. Tollestrup after researching online. After an evaluation, Dr. Tollestrup diagnosed David with piriformis syndrome. A follow-up diagnostic injection of the left piriformis muscle resulted in two weeks of almost complete relief from his usual pain.

Bye Bye Piriformis Muscle

Based on his excellent response to the piriformis injection, David opted to undergo surgery with Dr. Tollestrup to remove the piriformis muscle pinching his sciatic nerve. A piriformis muscle is a spare part – like an appendix – that most people don’t need.

By the time David came back to see Dr. Tollestrup for his one-week postop appointment, his original sciatica pain was essentially completely gone.

Cautiously optimistic, David is back playing softball in two different leagues 3 to 4 times a week with his friend and fellow success story Spencer.

Here is what David had to say after his successful surgery.

“After suffering from sciatica pain for more than 10 years, one week after surgery to remove my piriformis muscle my pain is gone. I am now back to enjoying my life again.”

If you or someone you know has sciatica pain, the problem could be piriformis syndrome. Dr. Tollestrup can help. Fill out a form on the right or call 702-666-0463.

 

Sep 19
0

Choir Teacher’s Sciatica Pain Gone After Piriformis Syndrome Surgery

By | Dr. Tollestrup Blog, Patient Stories, piriformis syndrome, success stories | No Comments

Choir Teacher Overcomes Chronic Sciatica Pain

After more than two years of debilitating sciatica pain, Deborah found Dr. Tollestrup. Deborah agreed to share her story in hopes of reaching others like her still suffering.

Deborah is a school teacher who teaches choir at a local middle school. Two years ago, she was injured sliding down a ride at a water park. As she was sliding down, she became airborne and landed very hard on the right buttock. Right away, Deborah felt like something had torn or ripped deep in the right buttock and there was a radiating pain which traveled down into the back of her thigh.

Over time, the pain increased causing her to walk with a noticeable limp. Sitting became almost impossible. She also started to have pain in her right foot. Sleeping was problematic because the pain kept her up at night.

Deborah was unable to find a doctor to give her any insight into the source of her pain or recommend any solution. Many doctors are not aware of piriformis syndrome. Very often doctors will recommend physical therapy, spine surgery, and narcotic pain medication. Unfortunately, none of these options offer long-term relief.

“The Tollestrup Procedure”

After hearing Deborah’s story and performing a careful peripheral nerve examination, Dr. Tollestrup diagnosed the source of the pain in Deborah’s right buttock, leg, and foot as Piriformis Syndrome. Piriformis Syndrome occurs when the large sciatic nerve becomes entrapped by the overlying piriformis muscle.

Dr. Tollestrup performed an operation he created to remove the piriformis muscle and relieve the pressure on the sciatic nerve.  A colleague calls this surgery the “Tollestrup Procedure.” This is done as an outpatient procedure and the patient is able to walk immediately.

By the time Deborah came back to see Dr. Tollestrup at the two-week post-op mark the debilitating pain in the right leg was completely gone.

Walking on the Beach

It is now two months since Deborah had the pressure on her sciatic nerve relieved. She continues to be pain-free. At her most recent follow-up visit, she remarked that her students noticed that she is no longer walking with a limp. One of them even came up to her and said, “Mrs. Fleischer, you look different since surgery, you can see it in your face.”

A fitting finish to this story is the text Deborah recently sent to Dr. Tollestrup when she was in San Diego. For Dr. Tollestrup, this is the most gratifying part of the job!

If you or someone you know suffers from chronic sciatica pain, fill out the form on the right or call Dr. Tollestrup at 702-666-0463.

Aug 21
0

Nerve Surgery Success After Six Failed Back Surgeries

By | back pain, chronic pain after surgery, Dr. Tollestrup Blog, nerve decompression surgery, Nerve Surgery, piriformis syndrome, success stories | No Comments

Failed Back Surgery Leads to Nerve Surgery Success

Thomas came to see Dr. Tollestrup after he endured failed back surgery six times. His chief complaint is pain and paresthesia involving the left lower extremity.

Pain and Numbness

Thomas’s pain starts in the left knee and radiates down into the lateral leg and over the dorsum of the foot. He also has pain in the calf muscle and the plantar surface of the foot. He states that he gets a lot of cramping in the toes and the arch of the foot.

Sitting makes the pain worse. When he sits, he also has pain in the left buttock and thigh.

He has a strange sensation that is kind of like a tingling from the knee down into the foot. He describes his pain as a “hard ache” most of the time with occasional intermittent painful electric shocks.

Thomas takes a sleeping aid otherwise he doesn’t sleep very well due to the pain. His wife says that he tries to sleep most of the day just to try to get away from the pain.

He has had a thorough workup with imaging of the spine from both his spine surgeon and his pain management physician. Neither of them can find any ongoing pathology at the spine level.

Sciatic Nerve Compression

On physical examination, Thomas shows evidence of compression of the large sciatic nerve at the level of the piriformis muscle in the deep buttock. This is called piriformis syndrome.

He also has compression of the common peroneal nerve just below the outside of the knee.

To confirm this, Thomas had a diagnostic injection of the left piriformis muscle which totally relieved his usual sciatica pain for about 48 hours.

With the diagnosis confirmed, Dr. Tollestrup took Thomas to the operating room and performed a surgery he developed where the piriformis muscle is removed and the pressure on the sciatic nerve completely relieved.

Surgical Success Times Two

After this surgery, Thomas has complete relief of the sciatic pain from the buttock to the knee level but persisted in having radiating pain down the outside of the lower leg and over the top of the left foot.

He went back to the operating room a second time for surgical decompression of the common peroneal nerve, a nerve that can become pinched just below the outside of the knee. After this procedure, Thomas is now completely pain-free of the original pain in his left leg.

Thomas is not being evaluated by Dr. Tollestrup for his chronic low back pain. Back surgery was supposed to relieve this pain but only made it worse.

Stay tuned for an update on Thomas’s low back pain.

“He has provided me with a quality of life that I thought I lost forever. I now have absolutely no pain in my legs. I am able to walk without pain again.”

Aug 11
0

Nerve Compression Causes Severe Sciatica Pain

By | back pain, Dr. Tollestrup Blog, nerve decompression surgery, Nerve Surgery, Patient Stories, piriformis syndrome | No Comments

Nerve Compression Compromises Quality of Life

Christine suffers from multiple chronic pain issues stemming from nerve compression. These cover the range from severe low back pain and sciatica pain to bladder pain to pain in multiple joints. We will tell her story in segments. Readers can follow her journey back to health with the help of Dr. Tollestrup and his innovative surgeries.

Severe Sciatica Pain

Christine has an aggressive form of osteoarthritis. Eventually, the arthritis pain in the right hip progresses to the point where Christine elects to have the right hip replacement surgery.

After surgery, Christine begins experiencing severe, right-sided sciatica pain. With a history of low back surgery, her doctors assume the problem stems from her back. This despite the fact that MRI imaging of the lumbar spine does not show a problem.

With medication failing to control her pain, she elects to have a newer type of spinal cord stimulator implanted. This is effective for three years. Then the pain in the right leg  comes back with a vengeance.

Pinpointing the Pain

It was at this point that Christine is referred to Dr. Tollestrup by her primary care physician. After completing a comprehensive peripheral nerve evaluation, Dr. Tollestrup concludes that her pain comes from two different pinched nerves in the right leg.

The first location is compression of the sciatic nerve in the deep buttock, a very common cause of sciatica pain called piriformis syndrome. The sciatica pain caused by piriformis syndrome is often missed or attributed to be due to some type of problem at the spine level.

In addition, Christine also has compression of a different nerve near the outside of the knee called the common peroneal nerve.

Rare Find

In the operating room, Dr. Tim Tollestrup finds a very interesting and rare set of circumstances. In Christine’s case, she has an anatomic variation in her piriformis muscle where she effectively has two separate muscle bellies medially joined together into one common tendon.

Understanding this particular anatomic variation of the piriformis muscle is key to understanding why Christine’s previously mild sciatica pain in the right leg became so severe right after the hip replacement. Often when the hip is replaced, the top part of the femur bone, where the piriformis tendon is attached, is removed to accommodate the prosthetic hip joint. Because the piriformis muscle is relatively unimportant in moving the leg, there is often no effort made by the orthopedic surgeon to reconstruct it.

In Christine’s case, however, this had serious consequences because as soon as the piriformis tendon was released, it retracted away from the hip and towards the spine, effectively strangling the part of the sciatic nerve passing through it in the crotch of the two tendons where they joined together.

Sciatica Pain Gone

By the one-week post-op, Christine tells Dr. Tollestrup that 95% of her original sciatica pain was already gone. At the 6-week post-op visit, she notes that her original sciatica pain was 100% gone.

Christine’s sciatica pain is 100% gone after nerve compression surgery*.

Christine has other chronic pain issues, including fairly severe left-sided sciatica pain, which she is continuing to work with Dr. Tollestrup to solve.

If you or someone you love has chronic pain, Dr. Tollestrup can help. Fill out the form on the right side of this page or call the office at 702-666-0463.

*Disclaimer

We do not guarantee any specific results or outcomes for surgery, should our practice work on your behalf. Information on this website may be used as a reference for successes we’ve achieved for our patients, and not as an assurance or guarantee for similar results in all instances.

Nerve Compression Causes Severe Sciatica Pain

Aug 10
0

Peripheral Nerve Surgery Offers Hope After Failed Back Surgery

By | back pain, Dr. Tollestrup Blog, Nerve Surgery, persistent pain after spine surgery, piriformis syndrome, success stories | No Comments

Nerve Surgery Heals Patient After Failed Back Surgery

Shelley is a woman who came to see Dr. Tollestrup after she failed back surgery multiple times.  She had pain complaints involving her low back, pelvis, and legs. Before meeting Dr. Tollestrup, Shelly endured failed surgeries and ineffective treatments.

Her story is painful reminder of how getting the right doctor to perform the right surgery is the key to relieving chronic pain.

Painful History

Shelly had three spine surgeries before to coming to see Dr. Tollestrup. After the third surgery, Shelly became aware of severe pain and buzzing in her left leg.

As time progressed the pain in her left foot became worse. Eventually Shelly was given a diagnosis of Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome Type 2 (CRPS II). The assumption was that there had been some type of injury to one or more nerves during the disc replacement surgery.

Shelly tried everything – spine injections, ketamine infusions, various medications, physical therapy and finally a spine stimulator. None of these options gave her relief.

By this time, Shelly’s worst pain was the skin of her left thigh. Shelly’s pain management doctor referred her to a local spine surgeon, who ordered a discogram which was positive at the L3 level. Based on that finding, the spine surgeon recommended a fourth spine surgery which was scheduled for May 1, 2017.

Social Media Leads to a New Option

While waiting to undergo her fourth spine surgery, Shelly discovered Dr. Tollestrup through social media. She made an appointment to see him a month before she was scheduled to have back surgery again.

After putting Shelly through a comprehensive peripheral nerve evaluation, Dr. Tollestrup was able to break down Shelly’s various pain complaints.

Based on his detailed understanding of peripheral nerve anatomy, Dr. Tollestrup knew that the pain in Shelly’s left thigh was not coming from a problem involving her L3 intervertebral disc. The simple reason for this is that Shelly was experiencing pain in an anatomic distribution rather than a dermatomal distribution. When a nerve root is pinched at the spine level, it produces pain in a dermatomal distribution (see dermatome picture).

Shelly was experiencing pain in an “anatomic” distribution rather than a “dermatomal” distribution. When a nerve root is pinched at the spine level, it produces pain in a dermatomal distribution

Shelly’s pain clearly conformed to an anatomic distribution. Anatomic distribution describes the actual part of the body that a specific nerve innervates. In the case of Shelly’s left thigh pain, the pain perfectly approximated the anatomic distribution of a nerve called the “lateral femoral cutaneous nerve”, or LFCN for short.

One of Shelly’s secondary complaints was left sciatica pain. Based on her physical exam, Dr. Tollestrup diagnosed her with a left piriformis syndrome which is compression of the big sciatic nerve in the posterior pelvis by the piriformis muscle.

In order to confirm both diagnoses, Dr. Tollestrup sent Shelly for two diagnostic blocks which gave her temporary relief.

Peripheral Nerve Surgeries Successful

The next step for Shelly was surgery. Dr. Tollestrup performed two outpatient surgeries on Shelly the same day.

To address the severe, burning nerve pain in the left thigh, Dr. Tollestrup located the damaged nerve and disconnected it. He then removed a long segment of the nerve and buried the upstream end in the muscle deep in the pelvis.

For the sciatica pain, Dr. Tollestrup removed almost the entire piriformis muscle.

One week later, Dr. Tollestrup saw Shelly back in clinic for her first post-op checkup. She was happy to inform him that the horrible, life-altering pain in the left thigh was completely gone. Surgery also eliminated the left sciatica pain. Shelly’s countenance actually looked different. She looked brighter, happier, and more alive. Dr. Tollestrup refers to this as removing the pain mask.

Shelly feels great after peripheral nerve surgeries.*

Shelly’s story is a cautionary tale. Her spine surgeon misdiagnosed the true cause of her left thigh pain. A fusion of the L3 and L4 vertebrae would not have given her any relief from her pain. In fact, it probably would have made it even worse. It also would not have fixed her left sciatica pain which was due to compression of the sciatic nerve by the piriformis muscle.

If you or someone you love has failed spine surgeries, injured peripheral nerves might be the problem.

Call the office at 702-666-0463 to schedule an appointment with Dr. Tollestrup. Or you can fill out a form on the right hand side of the page.

*Disclaimer

We do not guarantee any specific results or outcomes for surgery, should our practice work on your behalf. Information on this website may be used as a reference for successes we’ve achieved for our patients, and not as an assurance or guarantee for similar results in all instances.

Aug 07
0

Peripheral Nerve Surgery Offers Relief from Sciatica Pain

By | Dr. Tollestrup Blog, piriformis syndrome, success stories | No Comments

Peripheral Nerve Surgery Relieves Sciatica Pain

Stephanie is a patient who came to see Dr. Tim Tollestrup in hopes that he could help relieve her left side and sciatica pain.

History of Scoliosis

Seven years ago, Stephanie underwent spine surgery with straightening and fusion of the scoliotic spine. The surgery was 5 hours long and involved both an anterior and posterior surgical approach to the spine.

After surgery, she had resolution of the pelvic symptoms as well as her low back pain. The surgery did not relieve the pain in her legs. In addition, after surgery she had an internal sensation of “numbness” in the left leg. She has had repeat imaging of the lumbar spine since surgery and her spine surgeon has no explanation from a spine standpoint for the persistent symptoms in her lower extremities. Stephanie also felt like her left leg was weaker than the right leg.

About six months ago, Stephanie had recurrence of the left-sided sciatica pain. She underwent injections with her pain management doctor which resolved everything including her posterior knee pain and joint pain.

Tollestrup Procedure

Stephanie came to see Dr. Tollestrup when the injections stopped working and her sciatica pain became unbearable.

Upon examination of the peripheral nerves, Stephanie showed signs of multiple compressed nerves in both legs. In particular, she showed signs of a left piriformis syndrome, the source of her recurrent sciatica pain.

Stephanie went to the OR where Dr. Tollestrup relieved the pressure on her sciatic nerve at the level of the piriformis muscle as well as an additional nerve near the outside of the left knee. This is a surgery invented by Dr. Tollestrup. Other surgeons refer to this surgery as the “Tollestrup Procedure.”

By one week post-op, Stephanie new that her original sciatica pain in the left leg was gone. She is now anxious to see what else can be done for some of the other pain issues she is having in the left foot and right leg.*

If you or someone you know has sciatica pain, Dr. Tollestrup can help. Please call the office to schedule a consultation 702-666-0463.

After years of suffering Stephanie is on the road to recovery thanks to peripheral nerve surgery.*

*Disclaimer

We do not guarantee any specific results or outcomes for surgery, should our practice work on your behalf. Information on this website may be used as a reference for successes we’ve achieved for our patients, and not as an assurance or guarantee for similar results in all instances.

Jun 01
0

Piriformis Syndrome Cured by Removing Piriformis Muscle

By | Dr. Tollestrup Blog, news and events, piriformis syndrome, success stories | No Comments

Piriformis Syndrome Cured by Removing Piriformis Muscle

Susan F. was suffering from severe burning pain in the left leg which started in the buttock area and radiated all the way down the leg to the level of the ankle. This pain was compromising her active lifestyle, making her feel frustrated and depressed.

She sought treatment initially from a spine surgeon who told her that the pain in the left leg was coming from her back and that she needed back surgery.

Unfortunately, after recovering from the spine surgery, Susan quickly realized that although the pain wasn’t quite as severe as before the back surgery, most of the burning pain in the left leg was still present.

Susan then went to Dr. Tim Tollestrup who diagnosed the cause of the burning pain in the left leg as piriformis syndrome, which is entrapment or compression of the big sciatic nerve by a small muscle called the piriformis muscle deep in the buttock.

Piriformis syndrome is a severely under-diagnosed problem occurring when the nerve roots of L4, L5, S1, S2, and S3, which make up part of the lumbosacral plexus, become compressed between the bony inferior rim of the greater sciatic notch of the pelvis and the overlying piriformis muscle as they converge to form the proximal sciatic nerve. The greater sciatic notch is effectively a window from the inside of the pelvis to the outside of the pelvis. The structures traveling through this relatively tight space include both the piriformis muscle and the 5 nerve roots that make up the sciatic nerve.

Susan underwent surgery by Dr. Tollestrup who removed the piriformis muscle and decompressed the sciatic nerve.

It has now been two months since her surgery and Susan is back doing yoga, golf, and taking long walks – all the things she was unable to do before due to the burning pain in the left leg.

“I am so thankful that Dr. Tollestrup got rid of all of my pain. I would recommend him to anyone who is still suffering from chronic pain.”

May 31
0

Low Back Pain Gone Thanks to Innovative Surgeries

By | Dr. Tollestrup Blog, news and events, persistent pain after spine surgery, piriformis syndrome, success stories | No Comments

Low Back Pain Finally Gone Thanks to Innovative Surgeries by Dr. Tollestrup

Barry is a patient with a  history of low back pain. Like many patients with chronic pain, Barry experienced a number of failed treatments until he finally found Dr. Tim Tollestrup.

Several years ago Barry went on a long vacation to Australia. Prior to going on that trip he had an epidural which gave him total relief of his low back pain for almost three months. About 3 days before coming home from Australia he started to experience numbness in the left leg. The plane ride home really exacerbated the symptoms in the left leg producing severe radiating pain down the leg as well as increased numbness.

Upon returning to the United States he underwent a lumbar spine fusion which relieved most of the radiating pain in the left leg. He continued to have tingling and numbness in the left leg and foot, however, along with significant pain in the left calf muscle. The cramping pain in the left calf muscle would get especially bad with any kind of exercise. The left calf would also tend to ache all night long, making sleep difficult. Sitting for extended periods of time would produce pain in both buttocks with radiation of the pain into the posterior thighs.

Unfortunately for Barry, the lumbar spine fusion did not relieve his original back pain.

Dr. Tollestrup’s Approach

Barry was referred to Dr. Tollestrup by his primary care physician. Dr. Tollestrup evaluated Barry and identified a compression of the left sciatic nerve in the deep buttock, a condition known as piriformis syndrome as the primary cause of the residual numbness in the left leg and the pain in the left calf muscle.

Barry underwent surgery to remove the piriformis muscle and decompress the sciatic nerve. By 8 weeks post-op, the numbness and pain in the left leg was gone!

Next, Dr. Tollestrup investigated the cause of Barry’s chronic low back pain which had not been relieved by his low back surgery. Physical examination showed that the likely source of the low back pain was compression of several small nerves on either side of the spine called the superior cluneal nerves. In order to confirm this diagnosis, Dr. Tollestrup referred Barry for a block of these nerves where the nerves were put to sleep using a long-acting local anesthetic. This gave Barry complete relief from his usual, constant low back pain for about 48 hours.

Based on the positive result from the block, Barry went back to the OR where Dr. Tollestrup performed an operation he developed to remove these superior cluneal nerves.

Barry just checked in for his three month post-op visit after having the superior cluneal nerves removed and he has had complete relief from his original lower back pain. Barry joked with Dr. Tollestrup that now that his low back pain is gone, he has been much more active, working in his garden, etc. Now he is experiencing soreness in muscles that he has not used for a very long time due to the fact that he was so limited by his original back pain.

Two successful, innovative surgeries by Dr. Tollestrup have given Barry complete relief*.

Low Back Pain Gone

*Disclaimer

We do not guarantee any specific results or outcomes for surgery, should our practice work on your behalf. Information on this website may be used as a reference for successes we’ve achieved for our patients, and not as an assurance or guarantee for similar results in all instances.

Apr 25
0

Foot Pain and Sciatica Pain Gone Thanks to Peripheral Nerve Surgery

By | Dr. Tollestrup Blog, Nerve Surgery, Patient Stories, piriformis syndrome, success stories | No Comments

Foot Pain and Sciatica Pain Gone Thanks to Nerve Surgery

Luanne’s active lifestyle was severely compromised by constant, debilitating foot pain in her right foot and intermittent right side sciatica pain.

She was originally diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and then heel spurs, but treatments for both conditions did not give her any relief from her pain.  Over time the foot pain became progressively worse until she finally sought help from Dr. Tim Tollestrup.

When meeting with Dr. Tollestrup, Luanne describes the pain in the right foot as involving the entire bottom of the foot. The worst pain is a sharp, stabbing pain in the heel. The rest of the pain over the plantar surface of the foot is characterized as a “pricking pain” which is not as severe as the heel pain. The symptoms on the bottom of the foot are constant and exacerbated by any kind of weight bearing.

Luanne also shared with Dr. Tollestrup her long history of intermittent sciatica pain in the right buttock and thigh which usually radiates down her leg. When the pain is bad, it can radiate all the way down to the ankle.

After an extensive physical examination, Dr. Tollestrup determined she had right piriformis syndrome with compression of the sciatic nerve which was the source of the sciatica pain. She also had additional nerve compressions in the right leg, most severe in the calf and ankle area which were causing the severe pain in the bottom of the foot.

In surgery, Dr. Tollestrup decompressed all three areas.

Seven weeks later, Luanne returned to Dr. Tollestrup’s office for her post-op visit. She said that all of the pain in her right leg is completely gone. Before the surgeries, she was noticeably hobbled. But now when she walks around her neighborhood, her friends comment that they are glad to see she has her brisk stride back.

Dr. Tollestrup decompressed nerves to heal foot pain and removed Luanne's piriformis muscle to heal sciatica pain.

Luanne is walking briskly again thanks to nerve surgery.*

*Disclaimer

We do not guarantee any specific results or outcomes for surgery, should our practice work on your behalf. Information on this website may be used as a reference for successes we’ve achieved for our patients, and not as an assurance or guarantee for similar results in all instances.

Foot Pain and Sciatica Pain Gone Thanks to Peripheral Nerve Surgery

Apr 17
0

Sciatica Pain Gone Thanks to Surgery with Dr. Tollestrup

By | Nerve Surgery, piriformis syndrome, success stories | No Comments

Spinal MRI Did Not Show Nerve Compression for Patient with Sciatica Pain

Frederick sought the expertise of Dr. Tim Tollestrup to help with his debilitating sciatica pain. He agreed to share his story to help educate other prospective patients and physicians about an alternative method to eliminate rather than manage chronic pain.

Frederick came to see Dr. Tollestrup after suffering from sciatica pain for six months. The pain was severe enough that he needed daily narcotic pain medication. He tried physical therapy but that only made his pain worse.

His pain started in the buttock area and radiated down the thigh to the knee or on days it was really bad the pain could radiate all the way to his ankle. Walking made the pain worse. Frederick was in pain from the minute he woke up in the morning.

An MRI of Fred’s lumbar spine did not show any evidence of nerve compression at the spine level which could otherwise explain the “sciatica” pain that he was experiencing.

Upon physically examining Frederick, Dr. Tollestrup confirmed what he already suspected based on the patient’s history. Frederick had nerve compression of the piriformis muscle.

Dr.Tollestrup surgically removed Fred’s piriformis muscle to decompress the big sciatic nerve.

By one week post-op, Fred’s original pain was essentially gone.

He is now about 5 months post-op and his pain remains 100% gone. He has not taken a pain pill in about three months.

Frederick is pain free after Dr. Tollestrup removed his piriformis muscle.

Frederick is pain free after Dr. Tollestrup removed his piriformis muscle.*

If you are suffering from sciatica pain, Dr. Tollestrup can help. Please call the office at 702-666-0463 to schedule a consultation.

*Disclaimer

We do not guarantee any specific results or outcomes for surgery, should our practice work on your behalf. Information on this website may be used as a reference for successes we’ve achieved for our patients, and not as an assurance or guarantee for similar results in all instances.