Treatment of peroneal nerve injury by operation
Kaiser R., Houšt́ava L., Mencl L., Brzezny R., Haninec P.
The peroneal nerve is the most frequently injured nerve of the lower extremities, most often as traction injury caused by knee distortion or iatrogenic injury. We analyze retrospectively a group of 16 of our patients. Eight of them underwent external neurolysis with functional recovery in 62%. Outcome appears to depend on the time interval between injury and operation. Another eight nerves were reconstructed with a graft from the sural nerve with a good outcome in 50% of cases. In these cases, both the timing of operation and the length of the graft used proved important- the best effect was achieved if graft length was kept below 6 cm, which corresponds with other studies. Recovery of motor function was considered satisfactory when muscle power exceeded level M3 in the standard muscle test.