Health Organization for Pudendal Education

I am new to the site, Does a MRN always diagnose pudendal nerve damage and or entrapment? How in the world do you ever find someone to give you one. I can't even find a doctor who knows what I am talking about. What is the difference between nerve damage and entrapment, I had vaginal surgery 4 years ago. I have a compound a neurologist said might help me, I have been using it for a few days and I feel like I am on fire, My pain pills aren't helping at all. Has anyone used anything besides lidocaine for numbing cream? I don't think I should keep using it. Any advise, Thanks Linda

Hi Thereasa, here is the location page for MR Neurography, and there is one in Cincinatti Ohio (I saw in another post you are looking for one in the Ohio area: http://www.neurography.com/locations

The available imaging, MRN or 3T MRI (3T is available anywhere but the only radiologists I know who will read them for the pudendal nerve are in NY an AZ), is still rather new and it's speculative as to whether you can get an accurate diagnosis that way. To sum up:

- Dr. Filler reads all the MRN's. He is a neurologist who recommends his own interventions based on MRN results. He is in love with telling people their pudendal nerve is entrapped in their piriformis. He does not accurately portray his success rates when it comes to interventions he undertakes as a result of the MRN.

- Dr. Kalinkin is a Radiologist in AZ. She does 3T MRI's but she gets a lot of "normal / negative" results for people who obviously have pudendal pain.

-Dr. Potter is a Radiologist in NY. She does 3T MRI's. While Dr. Kalinkin might "under-read", Dr. Potter might "over-read". She seems to find an abnormality on everyone and some of it may or may not be related to the pain syndrome, although in at least a couple of cases people who use this Board have had her findings confirmed during surgery. She has a waiting list, last heard she is booked til February.

There are other tools to diagnose pudendal neuralgia. Here is the diagnosis page for this HOPE site: http://www.pudendalhope.org/node/69

While I obviously have some cynicism about the imaging tests, I got the MRN and it was very useful to me. It confirmed pudendal inflammation and this is very helpful in being believed by insurance and practitioners. It also found tarlov cysts pressing on my S2 nerve roots which seem to be the cause of my pudendal issues. Dr. Filler does not work on tarlov cysts so surprise surprise, his office told me to ignore them and spend a ton of money to have him inject my piriformis muscle. But I took the info I got from the report, and found out from a tarlov cyst specialist what treatment I need. So taken with a grain of salt, the imaging can be a valuable source of information.

theresa wrote:I am new to the site, Does a MRN always diagnose pudendal nerve damage and or entrapment? How in the world do you ever find someone to give you one. I can't even find a doctor who knows what I am talking about. What is the difference between nerve damage and entrapment, I had vaginal surgery 4 years ago. I have a compound a neurologist said might help me, I have been using it for a few days and I feel like I am on fire, My pain pills aren't helping at all. Has anyone used anything besides lidocaine for numbing cream? I don't think I should keep using it. Any advise, Thanks Linda

I do not know what compound you are using that is causing the the burning, but a side effect as bad as that tells me you should discontinue it..of course consult with the prescribing doc

regarding lidocaine..it think that has zero chance of hurting you..it is a sterile anesthetic ointment that is used routinely prior to cyctoscopies, etc, so I would have no worry about side effects with that one....I know that it can be used as needed

Theresa - a possible side effect of lidocaine is burning, discomfort, redness and swelling. If you are getting side effects like this, you should stop using it straight away. It may well be that if you have the lidocaine in a different form - gel, or patches - you won't have this problem.