Factors predicting sensory and motor recovery after the repair of upper limb peripheral nerve injuries

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To investigate the factors associated with sensory and motor recovery after the repair of upper limb peripheral nerve injuries.

DATA SOURCES:

The online PubMed database was searched for English articles describing outcomes after the repair of median, ulnar, radial, and digital nerve injuries in humans with a publication date between 1 January 1990 and 16 February 2011.

STUDY SELECTION:

The following types of article were selected: (1) clinical trials describing the repair of median, ulnar, radial, and digital nerve injuries published in English; and (2) studies that reported sufficient patient information, including age, mechanism of injury, nerve injured, injury location, defect length, repair time, repair method, and repair materials. SPSS 13.0 software was used to perform univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses and to investigate the patient and intervention factors associated with outcomes.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Sensory function was assessed using the Mackinnon-Dellon scale and motor function was assessed using the manual muscle test. Satisfactory motor recovery was defined as grade M4 or M5, and satisfactory sensory recovery was defined as grade S3 ⁺ or S4.

RESULTS:

Seventy-one articles were included in this study. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that repair time, repair materials, and nerve injured were independent predictors of outcome after the repair of nerve injuries ( P < 0.05), and that the nerve injured was the main factor affecting the rate of good to excellent recovery.

CONCLUSION:

Predictors of outcome after the repair of peripheral nerve injuries include age, gender, repair time, repair materials, nerve injured, defect length, and duration of follow-up.

Related collections

Most cited references 96

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Median and ulnar nerve injuries: a meta-analysis of predictors of motor and sensory recovery after modern microsurgical nerve repair.

Sandra Kalmijn, Henk Giele, Steven E. R. Hovius … (2005)

The aim of this study was to quantify variables that influence outcome after median and ulnar nerve transection injuries. The authors present a meta-analysis based on individual patient data on motor and sensory recovery after microsurgical nerve repair. From 130 studies found after literature review, 23 articles were ultimately included, giving individual data for 623 median or ulnar nerve injuries. The variables age, sex, nerve, site of injury, type of repair, use of grafts, delay between injury and repair, follow-up period, and outcome were extracted. Satisfactory motor recovery was defined as British Medical Research Council motor scale grade 4 and 5, and satisfactory sensory recovery was defined as British Medical Research Council grade 3+ and 4. For motor and sensory recovery, complete data were available for 281 and 380 nerve injuries, respectively. Motor and sensory recovery were significantly associated (Spearman r = 0.62, p 40 years: odds ratio, 4.3; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.6 to 11.2), site (proximal versus distal: odds ratio, 0.46; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.20 to 1.10), and delay (per month: odds ratio, 0.94; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.90 to 0.98) were significant predictors of successful motor recovery. In ulnar nerve injuries, the chance of motor recovery was 71 percent lower than in median nerve injuries (odds ratio, 0.29; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.15 to 0.55). For sensory recovery, age (odds ratio, 27.0; 95 percent confidence interval, 9.4 to 77.6) and delay (per month: odds ratio, 0.92; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.87 to 0.98) were found to be significant predictors. In this individual patient data meta-analysis, age, site, injured nerve, and delay significantly influenced prognosis after microsurgical repair of median and ulnar nerve injuries.

0 comments Cited 89 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

A randomized prospective study of polyglycolic acid conduits for digital nerve reconstruction in humans.

S. W. Weber, M E Jabaley, R D Mass … (2000)

This article reports the first randomized prospective multicenter evaluation of a bioabsorbable conduit for nerve repair. The study enrolled 98 subjects with 136 nerve transections in the hand and prospectively randomized the repair to two groups: standard repair, either end-to-end or with a nerve graft, or repair using a polyglycolic acid conduit. Two-point discrimination was measured by a blinded observer at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after repair. There were 56 nerves repaired in the control group and 46 nerves repaired with a conduit available for follow-up. Three patients had a partial conduit extrusion as a result of loss of the initially crushed skin flap. The overall results showed no significant difference between the two groups as a whole. In the control group, excellent results were obtained in 43 percent of repairs, good results in 43 percent, and poor results in 14 percent. In those nerves repaired with a conduit, excellent results were obtained in 44 percent, good results in 30 percent, and poor results in 26 percent (p = 0.46). When the sensory recovery was examined with regard to length of nerve gap, however, nerves with gaps of 4 mm or less had better sensation when repaired with a conduit; the mean moving two-point discrimination was 3.7 +/- 1.4 mm for polyglycolic acid tube repair and 6.1 +/- 3.3 mm for end-to-end repairs (p = 0.03). All injured nerves with deficits of 8 mm or greater were reconstructed with either a nerve graft or a conduit. This subgroup also demonstrated a significant difference in favor of the polyglycolic acid tube. The mean moving two-point discrimination for the conduit was 6.8 +/- 3.8 mm, with excellent results obtained in 7 of 17 nerves, whereas the mean moving two-point discrimination for the graft repair was 12.9 +/- 2.4 mm, with excellent results obtained in none of the eight nerves (p < 0.001 and p = 0.06, respectively). This investigation demonstrates improved sensation when a conduit repair is used for nerve gaps of 4 mm or less, compared with end-to-end repair of digital nerves. Polyglycolic acid conduit repair also produces results superior to those of a nerve graft for larger nerve gaps and eliminates the donor-site morbidity associated with nerve-graft harvesting.

0 comments Cited 65 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Clinical nerve reconstruction with a bioabsorbable polyglycolic acid tube.

S MacKinnon, A Dellon (1990)

Microneurosurgical techniques to reconstruct nerve gaps with nerve grafts frequently fail to achieve excellent functional results and create donor-site morbidity. In the present study, 15 patients had gaps of 0.5 to 3.0 cm (mean 1.7 cm) in digital nerves reconstructed by one surgeon with a bioabsorbable polyglycolic acid (PGA) tube. A final evaluation of sensibility was done by a second surgeon at a mean postoperative interval of 22.4 months (range 11 to 32 months). These were all secondary reconstructions. The evaluation included a digital nerve block with local anesthetic for the intact (not reconstructed) digital nerve. Excellent functional sensation (moving two-point discrimination less than or equal to 3 mm and/or static two-point discrimination less than or equal to 6 mm) was present in 33 percent and good functional sensation (moving two-point discrimination of 4 to 7 mm and/or static two-point discrimination of 7 to 15 mm) in 53 percent of the digital nerve reconstructions. One patient with poor sensory recovery and one with no recovery were judged as functional failures (14 percent). Absence of pain at the site of reconstruction was judged by the patient to be excellent in 40 percent, good in 33 percent, and poor in 27 percent. We conclude that reconstruction of nerve gaps of up to 3.0 cm with a bioabsorbable PGA tube gives clinical results at least comparable to the classic nerve graft technique while avoiding donor-site morbidity.

0 comments Cited 53 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Neural Regen Res

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Neural Regen Res

Journal ID (publisher-id): NRR

Title: Neural Regeneration Research

Publisher: Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd (India )

ISSN (Print): 1673-5374

ISSN (Electronic): 1876-7958

Publication date (Print): 15 March 2014

Volume: 9

Issue: 6

Pages: 661-672

Affiliations

[1]Department of Microsurgery and Orthopedic Trauma, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

Author notes

Bo He and Zhaowei Zhu contributed equally to this work.

Corresponding author: Xiaolin Liu, Professor, Department of Microsurgery and Orthopedic Trauma, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China, gzxiaolinliu@ 123456hotmail.com .

Author contributions: Liu XL, Zhu JK and He B were responsible for the study design. Zheng CB and Li PL collected and input the data, and other authors verified data. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript .

Article

Publisher ID: NRR-9-661

DOI: 10.4103/1673-5374.130094

PMC ID: 4146230

PubMed ID: 25206870

SO-VID: 2939e557-ee3b-4cd4-bb96-97bd27d51b4b

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Factors predicting sensory and motor recovery after the repair of upper limb peripheral nerve injuries

Read this article at

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

DATA SOURCES:

STUDY SELECTION:

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

RESULTS:

CONCLUSION:

Related collections

Orthopedics

Most cited references 96

Median and ulnar nerve injuries: a meta-analysis of predictors of motor and sensory recovery after modern microsurgical nerve repair.

A randomized prospective study of polyglycolic acid conduits for digital nerve reconstruction in humans.

Clinical nerve reconstruction with a bioabsorbable polyglycolic acid tube.

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Author notes

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 41

Cited by 41

Most referenced authors 571