A Cochrane review [Abstract]1 included 20 high quality observational studies with a total of 636 patients. No RCTs were found. Four studies evaluating the injection of corticosteroid and local anaesthetic found cure or improvement in 130/157 (83%) cases. Surgical treatments were found to be beneficial in 264/300 (88%) cases treated with decompression (9 studies); and in 45/48 (94%) cases treated with neurectomy (3 studies). Therefore, the reported improvement rates were comparable. In 3 studies with iatrogenic meralgia paraesthetica 99/102 (97%) patients recovered completely without intervention. Also, similar outcome was reported in a single natural history study, where spontaneous improvement of meralgia paraesthetica was described in 20/29 (69%) cases.
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency (heterogeneity in interventions and outcomes).
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