gms | German Medical Science

56. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e. V. (DGNC)
3èmes journées françaises de Neurochirurgie (SFNC)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e. V.
Société Française de Neurochirurgie

07. bis 11.05.2005, Strasbourg

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Are surgical interventions of isolated lesions of the superficial radial nerve promising?

Ist ein chirurgisches Vorgehen bei isolierten Läsionen des Ramus superficialis N.radialis erfolgversprechend?

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  • corresponding author J. A. Kandenwein - Neurochirurgische Klinik der Universität Ulm am BKH Günzburg
  • G. Antoniadis - Neurochirurgische Klinik der Universität Ulm am BKH Günzburg
  • H.-P. Richter - Neurochirurgische Klinik der Universität Ulm am BKH Günzburg

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Société Française de Neurochirurgie. 56. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e.V. (DGNC), 3èmes journées françaises de Neurochirurgie (SFNC). Strasbourg, 07.-11.05.2005. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2005. DocP219

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dgnc2005/05dgnc0487.shtml

Published: May 4, 2005

© 2005 Kandenwein et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

Text

Objective

Lesions of the radial sensory nerve causes alteration of function of its nerve fibers, resulting in symptoms of numbness and tingling or burning and pain over the dorsoradial aspect of the forearm, wrist and hand. The aim of this study is to find out which surgical technique is indicated for lesions of this nerve.

Methods

In a retrospective study, 22 patients with lesion of the superficial branch of the radial nerve were treated surgically in the last ten years in our neurosurgical department. The patients' main complaints were burning pain and paraesthesia. Six patients had previously undergone a tendolysis because of tendovaginitis stenosans de Quervain.

In 8 nerve lesions, the continuity could be maintained and so the surgical procedure was restricted to an external neurolysis. In 4 cases the nerve was reconstructed after resection of the neuroma (end-to-end-suture or use of a vicryl-conduit) and in 10 cases the neuroma was resected and a transposition of the proximal nerve end was performed.

Results

19 patients could be evaluated with an average follow-up of 51 months. Surprisingly, in only 5 cases was pain relief achieved after surgery. 7 patients showed an unchanged postoperative status, in one case pain was even worse after the surgical intervention. Satisfying results (pain relief or pain reduction in 75%) could only be found among the patients in whom the neuroma was resected and the proximal nerve end was transposed in the muscle.

Conclusions

Surgical interventions for isolated lesions of superficial radial nerve must be weighed very carefully because of a limited prospect of success. Furthermore, a nerve reconstruction is not desirable in our opinion.