Abstract
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