Further experience with interfascicular grafting of the median, ulnar, and radial nerves

The results of interfascicular nerve-grafting, a procedure developed in 1964, were reported in The Journal in 1972 9. Between 1964 and 1972, defects in forty-three median, fourty-four ulnar, and sixteen radial nerves were grafted using this technique. Final functional results after a minimum follow-up of two years are known for thirty-eight patients with median, thirty-nine patients with ulnar, and thirteen patients with radial-nerve lesions. In the median-nerve cases useful motor recovery (M 3 or higher) was achieved in 82% and protective sensibility was restored in all but one. In all of the patients with ulnar-nerve lesions useful motor recovery (M 2+ or higher) occurred, while in 77% of the patients with radial-nerve lesions an M 4 or M 5 level of function was achieved. The majority of the patients with poor results had some unfavorable circumstance such as advanced age, severity of the original trauma, or long time interval before repair. Comparison of our results with those in other series indicates that interfascicular nerve-grafting gives results which are at least as good as those after epineural nerve suture under ideal conditions and better than those after neurorrhaphy under tension.