Incidence of sciatic nerve palsy after revision hip arthroplasty through a posterior approach.

Sciatic nerve palsy after revision hip arthroplasty is rare, but can have substantial impacts. The purpose of this study is to report the safety and reliability of limited sciatic nerve exposure during revision surgery. A retrospective case series of 350 revision hip surgeries performed by a single surgeon underwent sciatic nerve identification. In each case, the sciatic nerve was identified and tagged loosely with a Penrose drain. Three hundred forty-eight of 350 patients (99.4%) underwent successful revision hip arthroplasty. One patient developed a transient sensory palsy; and another patient, a delayed palsy. Both nerve palsies recovered by the 1-year visit. We advocate visual nerve identification and tagging in revision hip surgery as 1 possible method to potentially reduce the risks of sciatic nerve injury. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.