The effects of sural nerve excision in autogenous nerve grafting.

The effect of excising fifty sural nerves from the legs of forty-five patients undergoing nerve grafting are described. Forty-two per cent of patients complained of tenderness in the calf, likely to be due to neuroma formation. Ten per cent of patients had other minor complaints. One would haematoma and one deep vein thrombosis occurred. Overall patient satisfaction was high when the functional result of the nerve grafting was taken into account.