I'm sorry about the pain you're going through. I spent 3 years in these treatments when I was in my 20s. I walked with a cane for about 6 months as a result of the pain (not training related).

I had cryoablation of the illioinguinal nerve. I also had 5 nerve blocks and RF frequency. The cryoablation brought more relief than the nerve blocks. Ultimately, I had a neurostimulator implant which has allowed me to go from unable to walk a few blocks to finishing iron distance tri. The implant changed my life, but it's really intrusive. I hope it doesn't come to that for you, but if it does, it works!

I wish you all the best. Let me know if you have any specific questions. I've been there.

Thanks for the information as it seems quite hard to come by, after you had the nerve ablation did you notice any numbness in the groin? only I had the nerves cut in the groin back in 2012 when I had sports hernia surgery there and all had been great up until last year when for some reason I tweaked my back out and then all of a sudden the nerves in the groin flared up again and I have been in a lot of pain as you are quite aware of it is not pleasant.

Did they do your ablation at the back or go directly into the groin, this is something I never asked the doctor about who is going to schedule the ablation, also I understand it can be very painful for a time while the nerve is dying off. Did one ablation work for you? Thanks again for the information and glad you are doing better, LA Rob

Did they do diagnostic blocks of the ilioinguinal nerve with local anesthetici.e. numb the nerve? If they did, did your pain go completely away i.e. within minutes of the block getting done did you get numbness in the groin and pain relief? The reason I ask, is that having ilioinguinal neuralgia this distant from surgery is really atypical. And when you described tweaking your back before the pain began. This argues more for a spine pathology i.e. herniated disk. Herrniating L1- L3 nerve roots could cause pain that radiates to the groin. I think that you need a bit more of diagnostic work done before ablating the ilioinguinal nerve. Did they say how they were going to due the ablation i.e. cryotherapy, radiofrequency?

There is already some good advice from others but I figured I would add something from the technology side of the discussion.

Radiofrequency ablation can be very effective but the ilioinguinal nerve but can be challenging to target in full. If you are getting very good relief from the nerve blocks then there is a good chance it will work for you. The average patient gets about 8 months of relief. The nerve will regenerate at approximately a millimeter a month so it is likely that all or some of the pain will come back. That being said if you get great, long lasting relief from it then a 30 minute procedure every 8 months or so would be worth it.

Spinal cord stimulation can be very effective as well. Isolating the groin area specifically can be challenging and the tingling sensation may or may not be for you. The beauty of it is that you can try it for a week to see if it works for you. I work with many patients that do great with it.

An alternative to spinal cord stimulation is Dorsal root ganglion stimulation. This is a new technology released in the USA in February this year. DRG Stim allows you to target very specific areas without excess stimulation in surounding areas. The other benifit is that you won't feel the stimulation which is preferable in the groin area.

All good options to research and discuss with your doctor. Also, as gasman, said make sure you had an MRI and have ruled out al potential causes.

Best of luck to you.

I should have explained my situation a little more to help with folks who want to offer some advice, so thanks for asking. Unfortunately my situation is a little strange; back in 2012 I had a IVC filter installed due to blood clots and PE. Then after a couple of weeks I was in terrible pain in the groin and low back all tests MRI’s CAT scans couldn’t find anything originally.

I had nerve blocks in the groin which helped so another MRI and this time the report showed sports hernia!?! So I went all over LA trying to seek help ended up with Doctor Brown in Freemont who performed a sports hernia surgery and cut 3 nerves in the groin, wow instant relief but weather I needed a sports hernia surgery is anyone’s guess but I do know cutting the nerves helped with the pain.

Then later on that year I went to UCLA to have the IVC filter removed as the local doc who put it in couldn’t get it out, and told me to just leave it in, anyway I didn’t want to leave it in so off I went to UCLA and the first thing the doc said to me there was “so you been having back issues” as the IVC filter had punctured the vein and was sticking in my spine, anyway I was lucky they were able to get the IVC filter out with lots of complications too much to go into here, but I made a good recovery.

So from the end of 2012 I was great, I got my fitness back and no more groin or back problems except for the numbness in the groin from the cutting of the nerves in the groin. Then last July 4th got back from a bike ride and my left side of my back got sore, really sore laid me up for a few days, went to doctors had P/T etc. Then I noticed the pain went to the right side and started to make my groin sore so I had an MRI it just showed a small annular tear 6mm on the left side at L3-4 nothing else the rest of the spine looked good, so I continued with P/T etc. plus I have had epidurals both sides.

Unfortunately nothing helped the pain in the groin until the steroid block which did work really pretty quick. I recently had another MRI of the back again nothing shows except the herniation L3-4 on the left side which is now 7mm, so unless I am wired wrong that shouldn’t affect the right groin? I also had a groin MRI and Dynamic Ultrasound of the groin again neither show anything, so all the doctors are at a loss to what could have caused the nerves to start hurting again like they have, unless when that IVC filter stuck into the nerve in my spine it got affected and some reason when I tweaked my back it set it off again, I really don’t know. I even tried a psoas muscle block which didn’t do anything the only thing that has helped was the illiguinial nerve block hence why the doctor now wants to do the radio frequency ablation, but I don’t know much about that but it sounds better than opening up my groin again to get pain relief.

So sorry this a bit long winded but as you can see it has been a real journey and to have got this set back again is so frustrating. Thank you all for getting back to me on this as to be honest I just feel at such a loss as to what to do next. It isn’t like I haven’t gone to enough doctors, heck I have been keeping the health system and MRI facilities here rolling in money with all my visits! Thanks LA Rob

Ahhh...things make a lot more sense now. Sounds like you have had quite the work up. It does sound like you had a response to the ilio inguinal nerve block so seems reasonable to have probably the RFA of the ilion inguinal nerve. IF that does not work...it may be reasonable to do a right L3 nerve root block. The reason being, you still get contralateral symptoms due to inflammatory mediators leaking across. The risk/reward of a selective nerve root block would be in favor of using this as both a diagnostic and therapeutic approach if the ablation doesn't help you. It sounds like you've been through a ton. Getting out an IVC that has migrated would be quite the ordeal. Best of luck!

Thanks for the reply and helpful information, as I feel I can't get enough information right now to try to help solve this groin issue. Yes the removal of the IVC was quite an ordeal, after they removed it of course as luck would have it my IVC collapsed in fact I needed 3 balloon procedures to keep it open and then it was touch and go but thankfully it stayed open after the final attempt even though it caused yet another blood clot and PE. So I really think all my troubles started when the IVC filter was installed and as most other doctors told me they couldn't understand the reasoning for it being put in to begin with.
I will hopefully be hearing from my doctors scheduler pretty soon to arrange the nerve ablation, just worry about how it will affect me after as I hear they can be quite painful while the nerve is dying off.
Thanks again Rob

Hi Well I had the RF Ablation done last Friday at UCLA it was the first time the doc had done that particular procedure but her dad who is the chief pain management doc for UCLA was there to lend a hand, it took a little time to get the nerve stimulated prior to the RF but I was able to do the 90 seconds it takes. Still a little sore in the area of the insertion site and still have some nerve pain that comes and goes and sometimes it is quite bad but they told me it can take up to 3 weeks to actually show improvement.

So fingers crossed this works... Cheers LA Rob

Hi,
My name is Sean and I have had chronic pain from in Inguinal Hernia operation.

I was wondering how you feel these days after the RF ablation, was it a success for you?

I think I have an illioinguinal nerve that is entrapped by the mesh (possibly). I have been living with this for over 4 years now. Just recently heard about RF ablation and would like to know the name of the Doctor at UCLA that you used and a phone number if you have it. I wish to try this route before any invasive surgery to remove the hernia mesh. Thanks you.

Sean K.