MERALGIA PARESTHETICA IN PREGNANCY Authors: Ali Sabri And Zaid Al-Attar*
ABSTRACT
Objective: To study the association between pregnancy and meralgia.
paresthetica (MP), the entrapment neuropathy of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve
(LFCN).
Methods: Three hundred and forty pregnant women were surveyed by history and clinical
examination in 3 major Obstetric Centers in Baghdad for the presence of underlying MP
and compared to a control group of 200 non-pregnant females.
Results: Thirteen pregnant women were found to have MP (3.8%) in contrast to only one
out of 200 non-pregnant women in the control group (0.5%) ,which was significant
statistically (P= 0.019).
Most of the cases were in their third trimester (53.8%), then in the second trimester
(38.5%), while only 7.7% of cases in the first trimester.
Conclusion: MP in pregnancy is not a rare disorder but is often misdiagnosed. The
etiological factors in pregnancy may be mechanical and/or anatomical variations of the
LFCN. However, this study disproves neither a hormonal nor a hereditary role in the
causation of the disorder.
Keywords: Meralgia paresthetica, pregnancy, neuropathy, femoral nerve
