Lin Yang

By Lin Yang and Ping Wang

Somatic nerves include somatic sensory and somatic motor, both of which are part of the peripheral nervous system. When somatic motor nerve or somatosensory nerve produces injury, then it belongs to peripheral nerve injury. Peripheral nerve injuries are common disease and complex process in clinical surgery. The severe physical dysfunctions such as motor/sensory loss, dyskinesia, and nutritional disorders in the area innervated caused by the peripheral nerve injury and even leave a lifelong disability. Therefore, somatic nerve reconstruction is essential and remains a major challenge for surgeons. Therapeutic methods include neurorrhaphy and nerve transfer or redistribution reconstruction; traditional Chinese medicine-assisted nerve regeneration and repair methods have been increasingly improved, even the functional recovery of peripheral nerve has not made breakthrough progress. All kinds of reconstruction and neural rehabilitation technologies have their own advantages, but they all have some limitations. Although great progress has been made in nerve electrophysiology and microsurgery, the results are still unsatisfactory. This chapter reviews the application of peripheral nerve reconstruction technology and briefly describes the advantages and disadvantages of each method, which will be useful for the selection of clinical treatment.

Part of the book: Somatosensory and Motor Research

By Lin Yang, Yaxuan Li, Qianling Zhang, Mengnan Jiang and Jia He

Brachial plexus injury (BPI) is a type of peripheral nerve injury, which is mainly manifested as upper limb sensory and motor dysfunction. Although the injury will not endanger life, it can cause serious functional loss and high disability rate, and eventually lead to patients unable to live normally. At present, the treatment methods for BPI mainly include conservative treatment, such as limb massage, exercise, drug therapy, autonomous movement and strength training; In clinic, nerve repair, nerve transplantation and muscle transfer can also be used. Although surgical treatment can better restore the function of injured brachial plexus, there is a certain risk, so it is not the first choice of treatment. As a mature electrical stimulation method, functional electrical stimulation (FES) can play a good role in promoting injured nerve regeneration and preventing skeletal muscle denervation atrophy, so it can be widely used in the treatment and functional recovery of BPI. This article will review the research progress of FES in the treatment of BPI.

Part of the book: Brachial Plexus Injury