Cause and treatment for iatrogenic injuries of peripheral nerve

Objective:To explore the causes,prevention and management for iatrogenic peripheral nerve injuries.(Methods: 39) cases with iatrogenic nerve injuries treated from Oct 1997 to Oct,2004 were included in this group,different causes and management were summarizedand the curative effect was assessed.Results:Surgical injury,traction injury,compression injury,and injection injury were the common causes for iatrogenic nerve injury.Conservative treatment was applied in 17 cases,neurolysis,anastomosis or nerve grafting was applied in 22 cases.Curative effect was satisfactory,the excellent and good rate was 84.2%.Conclusion:Surgical injury is the main cause of iatrogenic nerve injury.It is believed that high responsibility,mastering the anatomic knowledge,careful and expert manipulation is crucial to prevent iatrogenic peripheral nerve injury.Satisfactory curative effect could be achieved if the injuried nerve were treated timely by appropriate method according to the injured type.