Traumatic peripheral nerve injuries: demographic and electrophysiologic findings of 802 patients from a developing country.
OBJECTIVE
To study a series of patients with traumatic peripheral nerve injury during the past 10 years in Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty/Istanbul/Turkey.


METHODS
The chart review of 802 patients was evaluated and we explored the type(s) and cause(s) of injury, and electromyographic findings. The study included 171 children and 631 adults and we excluded the patients who suffered from injuries due to the Marmara earthquakes that occurred in 1999.


RESULTS
Injury was most common in the upper extremities in both children (78.36%) and adults (63.54%). The common causes of nerve injury in children were as follows: obstetric lesions (46.78%), iatrogenic lesions (16.95%), traffic accidents (15.7%), and sharp lacerations (12.8%), whereas the commonest cause of nerve injury in adults was due to sharp lacerations (27.57%), followed by iatrogenic lesions (25.67%), and traffic accidents (23.77%). The most commonly injured nerves were the brachial plexus and ulnar nerve in children and adults, respectively. Electromyography demonstrated that complete nerve injury predominated in both groups.


CONCLUSIONS
If preventive measures are taken into consideration satisfactorily, the incidence of disabling peripheral nerve injury may decrease, as such injuries are often treatable.
Uzun
Nurten
N
Departments of *Neurology daggerNeurosurgery, Istanbul University, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey.
Tanriverdi
Taner
T
Savrun
Feray Karaali
FK
Kiziltan
Meral Erdemir
ME
Sahin
Rahsan
R
Hanimoglu
Hakan
H
Hanci
Murat
M