Posttraumatic coccygeal instability.

PURPOSE: To report the middle term results of partial coccygectomy in a consecutive series of 15 patients with chronic coccygodynia. METHODS: Fifteen patients with chronic coccygodynia were referred to our outpatient clinics. The patients were investigated with dynamic lateral radiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We diagnosed a posttraumatic coccygodynia with instability of the coccygeal segment and performed a partial coccygectomy after failure of the conservative treatment. RESULTS: All patients underwent subjective and objective assessment after a mean time of 2.8 years from surgery. There were 11 excellent, 3 good, and 1 fair results. The mean time of improvement was 15 weeks, and no further improvement was observed after 6 months. CONCLUSION: Partial coccygectomy is a good therapeutic option for posttraumatic coccygodynia. Dynamic radiography is a useful tool to differentiate posttraumatic from idiopathic coccygodynia. MRI may be useful for further evaluation of the patients after inconclusive dynamic radiography