• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.93-96
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• 2010

We report a case of 44 years old male patient with neuroma-in-continuity of ulna nerve. In the patient's past history, he had received operative treatment for the open supracondylar fracture of right distal humerus and ulnar nerve injury at 10 years ago, and neurolysis was tried 2 times due to severe neuropathic pain. Despite of these operations, the symptom was not improved. In operative field, we noticed neuroma-in-continuity and decided to resect the neuroma until normal nerve fascicle was noted. The nerve cable graft was done with auto sural nerve on the defect site and the nerve was wrapped with small saphenous vein. At post operative 7 months, pain was markedly decreased and sensory recovery was slightly improved and patient was satisfied with the result.

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 1992

Benign peripheral nerve tumors, although infrequent, must be considered as a possible cause of pain and disability in the extremities. There are three varieties of these tumors that are of clinical importance: neurilemmomas, neurofibromas, and post-traumatic neuroma. Neurilemmomas are the most common primary solitary tumor of the peripheral nerve trunks, and are almost always benign, Neurofibromas may occur as a solitary nerve tumor, but can present as multiple lesions as in von Recklinghausen's disease. Clinically, this tumor may presents as a solitary mass in the subcutaneous tissue which is centrally located with the nerve fibers travelling through the tumor mass. Traumatic neuroma is the proliferation of nerve elements with connective tissue during the process of regeneration from severed nerves undergoing Wallerian degeration, and is therefore not a true neoplasm. A neuroma-in-countinuity is the result of partial severance of a nerve, or of a crushing or traction injury in which all or part of the epineurium and perineurium is intact. We experienced each of the three varieties. With magnification, the neurilemmoma was removed by meticulous dissection from the parent nerve preserving the normal fascicles to which it was attached. The neurofibroma was excised and the nerve was reconstructed with interposed vein graft and the neuroma-in-continuity was excised and reconstructed with sural nerve graft. We report histologic characteristics of each tumors and the methods to repair the nerve defects after tumor excision with brief discussion.

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 1997

A peripheral nerve when approximation of the ends imparts tension at the anastomosis and with a relatively long segment defect after excision of neuroma and neurofibroma cannnot be repaired by early primary suture. The one of the optimistic reconstruction method of severed peripheral nerves is to restore tension-free continuity at the repair site putting an autogenous nerve graft into the neural gap despite of ancipating motor or sensory deficit of the donor nerve area. To overcome the deficit of the autogenous nerve graft, several other conduits supplying a metabolically active environment which is able to support axon regeneration and progression, providing protection against scar invasion, and guiding the regrowing axons to the distal stump of the nerve have been studied. An author have used ipsilateral femoral vein, ipsilateral femoral vein filled with fresh thigh muscle, and autogenous sciatic nerve for the sciatic nerve defect of around 10 mm in length to observe the regeneration pattern in rat by light and electron microscopy. The results were as follows. 1. Light microscopically regeneration pattern of nerve fibers in the autogenous graft group was more abundant than vein graft and vein filled with muscle group. 2. On ultrastructural findings, the proxial end of the graft in various groups showed similar regenerating features of the axons, myelin sheaths, and Schwann cells. The fascicular arrangement of the myelinated and unmyelinated fibers was same regardless of the type of conduits. There were more or less increasing tendency in the number and the diameter of myelinated fibers correlated with the regeneration time. 3. In the middle of the graft, myelinated nerve fibers of vein filled with muscle group were more in number and myelin sheath was thinner than in the venous graft, but the number of regenerating axons in autogenous nerve graft was superior to that in both groups of the graft. The amount of collagen fibrils and amorphous materials in the endoneurial space was increased to elapsed time. 4. There was no difference in regenerating patterns of the nerve fibers of distal end of the graft. The size and shape of the myelinated nerve fbers were more different than that of proximal and middle portion of the graft. From the above results, the degree of myelination and regenerating activity in autogenous nerve is more effective and active in other types of the graft and there were no morphological differences in either ends of the graft regardless of regeneration time.