Median nerve as free tendon graft

Four patients are described, all of whom had tendon injuries in which the median nerve was used as a free tendon graft. Three cases involved the repair of a flexor tendon injury, and one the repair of an extensor tendon. In all cases, reconstruction of the median nerve was performed with a free sural nerve graft. The difficulty was that the palmaris longus tendon was missing in all cases. The importance of preoperative clinical testing for the presence of the palmaris longus tendon is emphasized.