A method for the determination of the length, the critical resection length and the critical gap distance of peripheral nerves from external body dimensions.

In 68 human corpses over the age of 20 years, defined external body dimensions and the total lengths of peripheral nerves were measured, taking sex and constitutional type into consideration. The particular body dimension with the closest correlation to the lengths of the most frequently injured nerves of the extremities was determined by correlation computation. Using this external body dimension in regression equations and diagrams, it is possible to determine the average length of the nerves of the extremities with considerable accuracy directly in the patient. When the length of the nerve is known, the absolute value of the critical resection length of 3 per cent and the critical gap distance of 3-7 per cent (depending on the kind of nerve and the level of the separation) can be determined individually.