Clinical results and thoughts on sensory nerve repair by autologous vein graft in emergency hand reconstruction

Emergency management of traumatic collateral palmar digital nerve defect inferior to 30mm by venous grafting. Report on 12 clinical cases

“…Such morbidity is null following vein harvesting [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Synthetic grafts do not necessitate to be harvested but they are significantly expensive.…”

“…In Table 2 Results. venous grafting of digital nerves of less than 30 mm, the recovery rate (S4 or S3+) is 78% (61 to 100%) [8,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. In cases realized in emergency conditions, this rate is 68% (58 to 83%) [8,10,12,15].…”

“…venous grafting of digital nerves of less than 30 mm, the recovery rate (S4 or S3+) is 78% (61 to 100%) [8,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. In cases realized in emergency conditions, this rate is 68% (58 to 83%) [8,10,12,15]. For secondary surgery grafting, the recovery rate is 82% (33 to 100%) [8,10,11,[13][14][15][16].…”

“…Nevertheless, series comparisons must be considered with some caution, since prognostic factors for sensory recovery, assessment methods and surgical techniques are not fully comparable. Pain at the level of the grafted finger, return to work and leisure activities and self-assessment of the outcome are usually insufficiently described in the published reports [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Risitano et al [12] do not report any painful neuroma in their series of 19 emergency venous grafting cases.…”

Peripheral Nerve Reconstruction with Autologous Grafts

“…They were used both to protect the site of nerve anastomoses and as nerve conduits, in a number of modifications. In the past, the use of nerve conduits in nerve reconstruction has provided results inferior to those obtained using nerve grafts; today we see a renewed interest both in venous grafts [22][23][24][25] and arterial grafts 26 , especially for short gap reconstruction (<3 cm).…”