[Chronic anoperineal pain: diagnosis and strategy for evaluation].

Chronic anoperineal pain may result from diverse causes; a precise and painstaking diagnostic approach is necessary to avoid inappropriate treatments which may aggravate the situation. Advances in imaging and neurophysiologic testing have improved the ability to diagnose and differentiate coccydynia, pudendal neuralgia, and the pyriformis muscle syndrome. Other etiologies including anismus, the descending perineum syndrome, and the levator ani syndrome are discussed as well as psychologic ans somatic interactions.