Sensory Nerve Injuries: Advances in Diagnosis and Novel Therapy to Enhance Sensory Recovery in Humans

Abstract

The unique difference between central and peripheral nervous systems is that regeneration actually occurs in the periphery. However, the functional recovery after surgical repair is highly variable and return to pre-injury state despite surgical advances is rare. When specifically looking at sensory regeneration, the functional recovery is even worse, where less than half of patients who receive operative repair have satisfactory recovery. Another problem lies in the paucity of knowledge regarding diagnosis of sensory nerve injury. This thesis reviews the current literature regarding sensory nerve regeneration, and subsequently investigates two critical voids in the literature: first, the diagnostic precision of several available sensory tests are described when looking at complete nerve transection; and second, the effect of novel post-surgical electrical stimulation on human sensory nerve recovery is reported in a randomized controlled trial.