Types of Peripheral Nerve Disorders and Injuries
Our peripheral nerve disorder team treats pain in almost every nerve in the body.
Restoring Function After Nerve Injury
Trauma and sometimes even other surgical procedures can result in paralysis and disability in particular nerves. Our peripheral nerve experts can treat these nerve injuries and restore function to the limb.
What is the impact of peripheral nerve injuries?
- Spinal accessory nerve injury (long thoracic nerve): Can make raising the arm away from the body difficult as well as cause significant shoulder pain.
- Axillary nerve injury: May cause wasting of the shoulder muscles and weakness in lifting the arm in front of the body.
- Radial nerve injury: Often results from fractures of the humerus; can leave a person unable to raise their wrist or fingers.
- Median nerve injury: Can impair an individual’s ability to feel or close their hand.
- Ulnar nerve injury: Can cause numbness in the last two fingers of the hand, severe weakness of grip and hand wasting.
- Femoral nerve injury: May result in an individual not being able to extend the knee or raise their thigh up at the hip.
- Peroneal nerve injury: Results in a foot drop, or inability to pull the foot up at the ankle; this can impair walking and require a brace.
Surgical Repair Techniques
Depending on the severity of injury and how long it has been present, our experts can repair each of these injuries by means of:
- Nerve grafting: When a portion of nerve is removed and leaves a gap, a nerve graft is necessary to bring the nerve ends together.
- Nerve transfers: Nerves with the best control are transferred to the most important muscle groups to improve function in that limb.
- Tendon transfers: The most common procedure for restoring function. A tendon is moved from one point to another to improve joint function.