Occurrence of Renaut's bodies in a peripheral nerve

We reviewed 1,012 biopsy specimens from the superficial peroneal nerve to assess the occurrence of Renaut's bodies. These structures were first described about 100 years ago, progressively forgotten, and only reexamined ten years ago. They appear as rounded, amorphous structures of the endoneurium and can be mistaken for small infarcts or amyloid deposits. In our biopsy samples, examined during a period of eight years, Renaut's bodies were encountered in 21 cases. Thus, their frequency in that nerve was estimated to be about 2%. The nerve fibers were normal in five cases and variously damaged in the remaining 16. No clinicopathologic correlation could be established. We concluded that Renaut's bodies are probably a normal structure of this peripheral nerve.