The 2004 Annual Meeting (January 14-20, 2004) of OASYS_NEW

Not yet assigned to a slot - 12:20 AM

Follow-up on Sensory Recovery in Patients with Neurotube Reconstruction of Proximal Median and Ulnar Nerve Injuries

Ducic I, Plastic Surgery, Georgetown University Hospital, 3800 Reservoir Road, NW, Washington, DC, USA and Dellon AL, Plastic Surgery, Institute for Peripheral Nerve Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, 3333 North Calvert Street, Suite 370, Baltimore, MD, USA.

In the absence of war, there have been few patients requiring microsurgical reconstruction of injuries to the median nerve where the location of the median nerve injury is proximal to the elbow. Available microsurgical techniques for nerve reconstruction are with nerve grafts and conduits. Disadvantage of nerve grafts are related to additional scars, prolongation of surgery while harvesting the graft and donor site morbidity. This particularly becomes obvious when multiple and long grafts are required for fascicular reconstructions. Nerve conduits, have no associated donor side morbidity, shorten the operative time, and can be cost-effective, but no report yet described their follow-up and effectiveness in high median and ulnar nerve injuries. That was the purpose of this study. The present report describes the successful sensory recovery in a 53 year old right handed man with a glass laceration of the median and ulnar nerve in the right axilla. He underwent fascicular repair for a 2.5 cm defect with multiple Neurotubes 18 months ago. At 3 months the Tinel sign was just above elbow, at 6 months at midfoream, at 12 months at wrist and at 18 months at DIP joint level. Tinel sign advanced faster then anticipated, 23 inches over 18 months. The patient had normal 2PD at thenar and hypothenar skin, while at fingertips had normal 1PD with excellent localization of the touch stimulus. The patient had intensive sensory re-education. The present report compares this Neurotube reconstruction result with that of a successful hand reinervation after high median nerve classical interfascicular nerve reconstruction with nerve sural nerve grafts. These results suggest that nerve conduits can be safely used for proximal nerve injuries with a good outcome.