[Primary and secondary microsurgical suturing of nerve injuries of the upper extremities. Results of treatment (author's transl)].

In the course of two years, 53 traumatic nerve severances of the upper extremity were sutured microsurgically at the Freiburg University Surgical Hospital. Continuity was restored by primary suture in 29 cases, by secondary suture in 4 cases and by transplantation in 20 cases. The first reinnervation potentials showing in the EMG served as evidence of the motor regeneration. With primary sutures, incipient voluntary innervation was observed after 2 1/2 months, but only after 9 months with nerve transplantation. Favourable conditions given, the authors therefore prefer the microsurgical primary suture to transplantation.