MERALGIA PARAESTHETICA

Abstract

While meralgia paraesthetica has been clearly appreciated as a definite clinical entity since the original independent descriptions of this disease by Bernhardt¹and by Roth²in 1895, no definite etiology or form of treatment has been presented in the intervening years. In spite of a fairly large number of case reports in the literature, little has been added to Bernhardt and Roth's clinical description of meralgia paraesthetica, which is characterized by pain, paresthesias and sensory disturbances in the distribution of the external cutaneous nerve of the thigh. When these subjective and objective sensory disturbances are present in areas not supplied by the external cutaneous nerve the disease should not be called meralgia paraesthetica, since nearly all who have studied this condition are agreed with Bernhardt and Roth that both the subjective and the objective manifestations are limited to the external cutaneous nerve area. Unfortunately, in a few instances