Clinical Practice Guideline: The Treatment of Peripheral Nerve Injuries

Nerve lesions often heal incompletely, leading to lifelong functional impairment and high costs for the health care system. The updated German clinical practice guideline is intended to promote the early recognition of nerve lesions and the timely initiation of proper treatment for optimal restoration of function.

The recommendations are based on an assessment of all the evidence revealed by a systematic search of the literature, as well as on the expertise of the multiprofessional guideline group.

Only a few publications contain high-quality evidence. This version of the guideline contains a more detailed discussion of war injuries, iatrogenic injuries, MR neurography, and specific treatments than the previous version. As for the different methods of nerve replacement, a comparison of autologous transplantation versus the use of conduits and tubes revealed no significant difference between these two methods on the mBMRC scale, and minimal superiority of autologous transplantation with respect to two-point discrimination. As for the use of nerve transfers when nerve reconstruction is not feasible or unlikely to succeed, nerve transfer yielded slightly better results than proximal reconstruction for elbow flexion, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (mBMRC ≥ 3: RR 1.16, 95% confidence interval [1.02; 1.32]). The treatment of neuromas with targeted muscle reinnervation was superior to the classic approach in decreasing both stump pain (MD 2.0 +/- 2.8) and phantom limb pain (MD 3.4 +/- 4.03).

The delayed or improper treatment of peripheral nerve lesions can lead to severe impairment. Timely diagnosis, the use of appropriate treatments in conformity with the guidelines, and interdisciplinary collaboration among specialists are all essential for optimizing the outcome.