title: Does crossover innervation really affect the clinical outcome? A comparison of outcome between unilateral and bilateral digital nerve repair.
abstract: Digital nerve injuries are the mostly detected nerve injury in the upper extremity. However, since the clinical phenomenon of crossover innervation at some degree from uninjured digital nerve to the injured side occurs after digital nerve injuries is sustained, one could argue that this concept might even result in the overestimation of the outcome of the digital nerve repair. With this knowledge in mind, this study aimed to present novel, pure, focused and valuable clinical data by comparing the outcomes of bilateral and unilateral digital nerve repair. A retrospective review of 28 fingers with unilateral or bilateral digital nerve repair using end-to-end technique in 19 patients within 2 years was performed. Weber's two-point discrimination, sharp/dull discrimination, warm/cold sensation and Visual Analog Scale scoring were measured at final 12-month follow ups in all patients. There was no significant difference in recovery of sensibility after unilateral and bilateral digital nerve repairs. Though there is crossover innervation microscopically, it is not important in the clinical evaluation period. According to clinical findings from this study, crossover innervations appear to be negligible in the estimation of outcomes of digital neurorrhaphy.
authors.affiliation: Ankara Training and Research Hospital, Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Melike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oruç
authors.affiliation: Aydin State Hospital, Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, Aydin, Turkey.
authors.forename: Kadri
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2966-6618
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ozer
authors.affiliation: Istanbul Okmeydani Training and Research Hospital, Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Özlem
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Çolak
authors.affiliation: Ankara Training and Research Hospital, Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Yüksel
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kankaya
authors.affiliation: Ankara Training and Research Hospital, Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Uğur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Koçer
keywords: bilateral; crossover innervation; digital nerve repair; nerve regeneration; nerve sprouting; neural regeneration; neurorrhaphy; sensibility; unilateral