Chapters authored
Starting A Peripheral Nerve Surgery Unit in an Area of Limited Resources - Our Experience
Dedicated peripheral nerve surgery centers are few in developing countries where majority of affected patients either remain untreated or are simply palliated with just physiotherapy. In this chapter, we review our experience with surgery for peripheral nerve lesions and peripheral nerve injuries over a 5-year period. A total of 68 procedures were carried out for 58 patients with various peripheral nerve lesions and injuries. Among the 19 surgeries for adult brachial plexus injuries, 10 were for pan-brachial plexus injury, 2 procedures for lower brachial plexus injuries, and 7 procedures for upper brachial plexus injury, while 11 repair surgeries were done for pediatric brachial plexus injuries. The remaining 38 surgeries included 21 peripheral nerve sheath tumor excisions, 5 ablative procedures for chronic neuralgia, 8 procedures for non-carpal tunnel peripheral nerve entrapments, and 4 adults with upper or lower limb isolated nerve injury repairs. The patients were followed up between 6 months and 2 years post-surgery for functional outcome assessment. Overall, as many as 57.5% of the patients had significant neurologic improvement noticed at 2 years of follow-up. Despite its challenges, optimal outcomes following surgery are still possible for patients with nerve injuries, entrapments, and nerve tumors in developing countries
Part of the book: Treatment of Brachial Plexus Injuries