Lumbosacral plexopathy in pelvic trauma.

We reviewed the electrophysiologic data and the etiology of lumbosacral plexopathy in 22 consecutive patients with pelvic trauma referred for electromyography (EMG). Most (68%) patients had sacral fractures or sacroiliac joint separation, 14% had acetabular fractures, and 9% had femoral fractures. Lumbosacral plexopathy was significantly more common (P = 0.0026) among patients with sacral fractures (incidence of 2.03%) than among the entire population of patients with pelvic and acetabular fractures (overall incidence 0. 7%). Patients with acetabular and femoral fractures may have suffered injury to multiple proximal nerves originating from the plexus rather than injury to the plexus, as confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) neurogram in select cases. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.