Articles: peripheral-nerve-injuries.
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Mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain (NP) are complex with multiple genes, their interactions, environmental and epigenetic factors being implicated. Transcriptional changes in the trigeminal (TG) and dorsal root (DRG) ganglia have been implicated in the development and maintenance of NP. Despite efforts to unravel molecular mechanisms of NP, many remain unknown. ⋯ This study provides a basis for further in-depth studies investigating transcriptional changes, pathways, and upstream regulation in TG and DRG in rats exposed to peripheral nerve injuries. PERSPECTIVE: Although trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia are homologs of each other, they respond differently to nerve injury and therefore treatment. Activation/inhibition of number of biological pathways appear to be ganglion/system specific suggesting that different approaches might be required to successfully treat neuropathies induced by injuries in spinal and trigeminal systems.
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Arch Orthop Trauma Surg · Dec 2023
Mechanisms, interventions at risk and clinical presentation of iatrogenic nerve lesions in trauma patients.
Iatrogenic nerve lesions during surgical interventions are avoidable complications that may cause severe functional impairment. Hereby, awareness of physicians and knowledge of structures and interventions at risk is of utmost importance for prevention. As current literature is scarce, we evaluated all patients treated surgically due to peripheral nerve injuries in our specialized nerve center for the presence of iatrogenic nerve lesions. ⋯ Awareness of major surgical complications such as iatrogenic nerve injuries is important for surgeons. An often-seen trivialization or "watch and wait" strategy results in a huge delay for starting an adequate therapy. The high number of in-continuity lesions mainly in close proximity to osteosyntheses makes diagnosis and treatment planning a delicate challenge, especially due to the varying clinical presentations we found. Diagnostics and therapy should therefore be performed as early as possible in specialized centers capable of performing nerve repair as well as salvage therapies.
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Peripheral nerve injuries resulting in a nerve defect require surgical repair. The gold standard of autograft (AG) has several limitations, and therefore, new alternatives must be developed. The main objective of this study was to assess nerve regeneration through a long gap nerve injury (50 mm) in the peroneal nerve of sheep with a decellularized nerve allograft (DCA). ⋯ The decellularized graft assayed supported effective axonal regeneration when used to repair a 5-cm long gap in the sheep. As expected, a delay in functional recovery was observed compared with the AG because of the lack of Schwann cells.
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Continuous nerve block with ropivacaine is commonly performed after repair surgery for traumatic peripheral nerve injuries. After peripheral nerve injury, tetrodotoxin-resistant voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.8 is upregulated and contributes to macrophage inflammation. This study investigated whether ropivacaine promotes peripheral nerve regeneration through Nav1.8-mediated macrophage signaling. ⋯ Continuous nerve block with ropivacaine promotes the structural and functional recovery of injured sciatic nerves, possibly by regulating Nav1.8-mediated macrophage signaling.
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Journal of neurosurgery · Dec 2023
Characterizing peroneal nerve injury clinicoradiological patterns with MRI in patients with sciatic neuropathy and foot drop after total hip replacement.
Sciatic nerve injury following total hip arthroplasty (THA) predominantly affects the peroneal division of the sciatic nerve, often causing a foot drop. This can result from a focal etiology (hardware malposition, prominent screw, or postoperative hematoma) or nonfocal/traction injury. The objective of this study was to compare the clinicoradiological features and define the extent of nerve injury resulting from these two distinct mechanisms. ⋯ There are distinct clinicoradiological findings in patients with sciatic injuries resulting from a focal structural etiology versus a traction injury. While there are discrete localized changes in patients with a focal etiology, those with traction injuries demonstrate a diffuse zone of abnormality within the sciatic nerve. A proposed mechanism involves anatomical tether points of the nerve acting as points of origin and propagation for traction injuries, resulting in an immediate postoperative foot drop. In contrast, patients with a focal etiology have localized imaging findings but a highly variable time to the onset of foot drop.